Young Utah Boy Shoots Father: Disturbing Hatchet Wounds Uncovered

There's a murder story from Northwestern Utah that is so bizarre, so unlikely that it can't possibly be true.

But it is.

First of all, the facts:

• On Feb. 16, a 9-year-old Tooele boy admits he shot and killed his father with a 9MM handgun. It happened at around 7 p.m. The gunshot wound was in the back of the head.
• The deceased 32-year-old victim also had dozens of hatchet wounds on his body. Authorities aren't sure, but they think the wounds were suffered after the victim had been shot, but before he passed away.
• A bloody "tomahawk-style" hatchet was found under the bed of the deceased, a bed he shared with the admitted killer.
• Seven other people (mostly children) were home at the time of the attack. None of them heard anything, including the gunshots. They were only made aware of the crime when the boy exited the room and stated that his dad was bleeding from the head and was dead (he actually died later that night at the hospital)..
• The victim and accused killer, according to the warrant, “retired to bed early due to behavioral problems and went into the bedroom that they share."
• Medical officials said the hatchet wounds on the victim appeared to be defensive wounds, meaning the victim appeared to be trying to defend himself during the attack.
• The 9-year-old accused killer was reportedly extremely into video games, especially a newer version of a war game called 'Modern Warfare: Warzone'
• In that game, two of the commonly used weapons are 9MM handguns and tomahawk strikes.

There are so many questions that need to be answered (Where was the mom? Where'd he get the gun? How did the child learn this behavior? Was the act in retaliation for some "disciplinary measures"? Why didn't anyone in the house hear anything?).

But the most pressing question of all is this: Are our kids getting so desensitized to violence because of video games that the lines between right and wrong are blurred, even gone?

When my kids were younger I had just one rule when they played games: No killing humans -- if you're killing something, it had better be a monster or an alien.

Maybe it was a stupid rule, I don't know. Or maybe it saved my life.

Get our free mobile app