Teens Say Video Game Inspired Them in Deadly Highway Shooting
Grand Theft Auto, a video game that allows players to "fire" on people and cars in realistic, shoot-"em-up fashion, is a cash cow that propelled manufacturer Take Two Interactive to the top of the video game industry. For the middle and high school students who play the game for hours on end, it"s a means of escaping the mundaneness of teenage life.
But for two stepbrothers, 16-year-old William and 14-year-old Joshua Buckner, that escape turned deadly earlier this summer. They told police they were emulating Grand Theft Auto on the night of June 25 when they took shotguns to Interstate 40, near their Newport, Tenn., home, and opened fire on vehicles.
The boys told police they did not mean to hit people, but the results were catastrophic.
Aaron Hamel, a 45-year-old registered nurse from Knoxville, Tenn., traveling in a separate car, was killed.
"We were driving down the interstate, back from a great trip," said Hamel"s cousin, Denise Deneau. "My cousin said, "Look at those flowers," and then all of sudden through my window came a bullet. The heat was so much I could feel it. On my lap, I saw broken glass and lots of blood. I thought I had been shot."
But it was Hamel who had been shot. He had a bullet hole in his temple, and it was gushing blood as the car careened out of control at 70 mph, going against traffic, she said. The car finally came to a stop after hitting a guard rail.