Memphis boy, 12, accused of shooting friend over video game
Keshun Tuggle admitted he got rid of the weapon used by the 12-year-old, who shot his 13-year-old pal with a gun that was left out.
A 12-year-old boy in Memphis has been accused of shooting his 13-year-old friend after getting angry while they played video games.
According to a local report, an 18-year-old was arrested at the scene of the shooting Sunday after telling police the child was shot in a drive-by shooting. Authorities made clear his assertions didn’t add up, and Keshun Tuggle admitted he staged the crime scene and disposed of the weapon used by the unidentified 12-year-old boy, who reportedly shot his friend with a gun that had been left out in the open.
The 13-year-old was transported to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in critical condition following the shooting.
Tuggle has been charged with providing a handgun to a juvenile, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and tampering/fabricating evidence.
This makes another incident of unusually-violent recent behavior by younger Americans. In a Florida shooting earlier this week, a 14-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy allegedly fled a group home and broke into a house, where they found multiple guns and opened fire on law enforcement.
According to an affidavit in the case, the boy told investigators that when they saw deputies outside, the girl said, “I’m gonna roll this down like GTA,” referring to the video game Grand Theft Auto.
The girl was shot in the arm by police and is expected to recover, while the boy was unharmed. No officers were injured in the shooting.
“I don’t know what to say,” said Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood. “Where have we gone wrong that a 12-year-old and 14-year-old think it’s OK to take on law enforcement?”
In 2018, researchers rejected a suggestion by then-President Donald Trump that the internet, movies and video games were making kids in America more violent. The former commander-in-chief made the remarks a week after a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The shooter in that case reportedly played video games for up to 15 hours a day.
In 2011, the Supreme Court rejected a claim that violent video games promote real-life violence. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote: “Psychological studies purporting to show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children do not prove that such exposure causes minors to act aggressively.”
“Any demonstrated effects are both small and indistinguishable from effects produced by other media,” he added.
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