Gamer Dad Attacks Teen After CoD Black Ops Heckling
One man lost his cool and actually assaulted a teen living up the street over words exchanged in Call of Duty: Black Ops.
When playing deathmatch or other multiplayer options online with other gamers, heckling comes with the territory, even more so for newbies still trying to figure out the benefits of certain weapons or the layout of a map. Sometimes it's just not possible to not get offended by some of the more insulting remarks without some kind of retaliation. For one father of three, he took his revenge just a little too far.
46 and unemployed, Mark Bradford of Plymouth said he "lost it" while playing Call of Duty: Black Ops over the PlayStation Network. A local 13-year-old was reportedly subjecting Bradford to a barrage of taunts and verbal abuse including the name "d***head." It suddenly became personal when the teen then gunned down Bradford's character.
"'I just lost it," Bradford admitted. "In a moment of madness I went round to the house. I didn't know what I was going to do. It wasn't malice. I just grabbed him."
That's right: Bradford hunted the teen down who conveniently lived just 200 yards up the street, barged into the house, plowed into the living room where the boy sat playing the game, and then placed both hands around the boy's neck in a "revenge attack." The teen wasn't harmed, but the clamp caused reddening and a scratch on his neck. Later the boy said he didn't know what was going on, that the two previously "had a bit of a joke and then he stormed in and grabbed me."
"I've seen him since and apologized," Bradford said after pleading guilty to the assault. "The injuries weren't that bad but I do regret it." Previously he said the boy "was baiting me and just would not shut up." Bradford reportedly has mental health issues.
According to reports, the two knew each other prior to the July 1 incident. The victim's 33-year-old mother, who remains nameless along with her son, was the one who broke off the attack by pulling Bradford away her son.
"It's pathetic that a grown man would attack a defenseless child like this," she told reporters. "If you can't handle losing to a child then you shouldn't be playing games. I know Mark and went straight round when I found out what had happened. I was fuming. But rather than have it out with him, I got the police involved."
Bradford has admitted to one count of assault by beating and was given a 16-week prison sentence at Plymouth Magistrates' Court, but the sentence has been suspended for 12 months. For now he must wear an electronic tag for eight weeks, and pay £80 compensation to the teenager. He also has a curfew of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m..
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Defenseless child? Why is a child playing an M rated title? Get the kid off the game.
I'd pay £80 to strangle some little internet turd. Sounds like a good deal.
I've wanted to choke a few kids. Now I just mute everyone and don't have much of a problem
Defenseless child? Why is a child playing an M rated title? Get the kid off the game.
The media isn't smart enough to realize that.
I want to shake this guys hand. You you've wanted to beat the crap out of some kid talking smack, or being annoying over the net before. I'm glade this guy had to balls to go do this to a kid. I applaud him!
He is now.
There was a time in this country, when you disrespected your elders, they beat the piss out of you. In fact they didn't have to, when your parents heard of you disrespecting elders, THEY beat the piss out of you. Maybe this snot-nosed punk needs to learn some manners; hopefully he did.
This is why I like PC games, most times lil kids dont have the scratch for a gaming PC.....still lots of dicks out there but at least they ain't 10-13
You are a grown man.
stuff happens
@ chumley - while I don't agree with beating a child, the basic premise of respecting your elders and being punished for being disrespectful is sound IMO.
If I ever caught my daughter acting like that kid, you can bet your ass she'll be seriously punished.
Defenseless child? Why is a child playing an M rated title? Get the kid off the game.
Because some idiot parent decided to read some kid book where the author thought CoD was OK. No one raises their kids anymore, today's youth are brought up on Baby Books and Supernanny.
This is why I don't play with people local to me. Gaming can make you flip and do reckless things, then having to sleep worrying about a brick being thrown through my window. No thanks. I'll stay a lonely gamer for the rest of my dying days
That guy may have lost his temper, but at least he had the balls to own up and accept his punishment instead of wasting taxpayer money on a pointless trial. I'm sure he's learned from it.
Kevin Parrish: Your article is nearly a month old... and from MSNBC of all places. I'm not a journalist, and I remembered seeing this. How did your crew miss this?
http://ingame.msnbc.msn.com/_news/ [...] o-shot-him
Dated 30 Sept 2011. Epic fail on THG for posting archival info as "news".
See in my house growing up... if my dad found out I was acting this way to to an adult he would have driven me to this mans house and beat my ass in front of him. Thats if I was stupid enough to even dream of acting in this way to begin with. This is just another news story proving that it takes more than just having children to be a parent. While this man should have controlled himself better, the "parents" should be actively participating in raising their child as opposed to simply being spectators.
In the past, if you done that, there will be a belt waiting for you. Now kids run amok and parents thinks it's okay and only portray what their child is in their "dream vision" while blacking out the reality of what their child is capable off. They should throw him into boot camp so they can drive some discipline into punk ass cause he lacks tons of it.
13 yr old ... M rated game ... oh yeah MOM YOU FXCKING FAILED!
I bet she doesn't know how her poor defenseless little child acts online, talking smack with the best of them on the rated M title.
Both parents are losers. One guy unemployed that's 46 years old is playing a game when he should be looking for a job instead. Then to let a 13 year old kid make him lose his temper to the point where he assulted the kid is utterly stupid and immature on his part. The parent of the 13 year old child is also a loser for allowing her 13 year old son to play a game with mature content.
I feel sorry for the 46 yr old guy. Kids these days are no doubt one hell of a uncouth lot if they are not properly being brought up.
Respect that is given to people older than you isn't something that exists in today's kids any more......
Really, sad, but then you do meet all types of people on the network too. What surprised me was that he's a father of three, I'd have expected him to have a lot more patience than this. But, it's bad when you're unemployed and can't do anything about it , I guess, we've all had our share of bad times. I sympathize with the 46 yr.old, and the kid does deserve a kick in the teeth.
@ chumley - while I don't agree with beating a child, the basic premise of respecting your elders and being punished for being disrespectful is sound IMO.If I ever caught my daughter acting like that kid, you can bet your ass she'll be seriously punished.
respect is earned not given. im 23, so you know where this thought is coming from.
when i was in school, there were 2 teachers who had my full respect, the art teacher, and the computer/history teacher, best 2 i ever had.
there were a few who had my respect as a person, but not as an educator, and some i couldn't bring my self to help even if i saw them dieing as they sucked as a teacher, as a person, and were horrible to everyone they came in contact with, where not one person could say something good about them.
one teacher, he was shop, was involved in a drive by, the person who shot at his house was out of school, but the driver just had to ware a ankle bracelet. he was in his class, and still was given fair grades... its amaseing.
now kids automatically giving an adult respect because they are an adult... hell no.
kids showing common curtacy to people, regardless, that i agree with.
See in my house growing up... if my dad found out I was acting this way to to an adult he would have driven me to this mans house and beat my ass in front of him. Thats if I was stupid enough to even dream of acting in this way to begin with. This is just another news story proving that it takes more than just having children to be a parent. While this man should have controlled himself better, the "parents" should be actively participating in raising their child as opposed to simply being spectators.
no no no no no no no.
i treat people in real life how i treat people online when i'm anonymous
however i don't scream every obscenity i can at people, im a complete *** to them though, to me bad words are just words, i use them all the time, and you have no idea how hard it is to post comments here without saying them.
that said, dickhead was probably the lightest thing said if it was ever said, you ever play a cod game online? this kid probably went off on a 5 minute tangent of racism, bad words poorly used, and sexist terms, and he was probably grasping at straws when he told his mom "all i said was dickhead"
surprisingly the kid never got punished for swearing or verbally abusing people but the 46 yr old guy gets punished for doing what his lazy ass mum should have done?
the worlds gone upside down...
Absolute failure of a parent his mom is.
While there's no way to justify the guy's actions, one does has to question a 13 year old playing an M rated game, calling other people d***heads... (I'm sure thats not the end of his vocabulary either).
The biggest problem with this online gaming environment is there are no consequences to your actions so people act like douches... Well unless you piss off the guy down the road that is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjF93E4LjlA
haha... I'm a man! I'm 40!
What a crack of bullshi... Prison for "no harm", payment, 13 kid playing a mature rated game, and all of this end like that. Hell i should get my father to the police for everytime he hit me then, or wait, everytime another kid hit me when i was little....
The guy should be punished, no doubt, but not with prison, take the freaking game away from him!
people are just retarded sometimes, and only know how to blame everybdy else.
Defenseless child? Why is a child playing an M rated title? Get the kid off the game.
This is in the UK mate not the US, we don't have "M" rated games over here, the question should be why was a 13 year old playing an 18 rated game O.O
Because some idiot parent decided to read some kid book where the author thought CoD was OK. No one raises their kids anymore, today's youth are brought up on Baby Books and Supernanny.
apparently this isn't the case. The motehr was at home while teh kid was playign this game , and she is obviously OK WITH IT > youa re you to tell some one how they can or can't raise thier kid ??? is it your buisness what games she allows her kid to play? NO it is NOT , the day every one in this country thinks it's thier buisness is the day this country stops being america. as for this mans actions they are ridiculous adn horrible. sure i've goten pissed at idiots onlien before , but does that give me the right to physicallya ttack some one much less a kid jsut becasue i can't deal with a vberbal insult better ??? no it doesn't give me that right , I'm an adult and i conduct myself that way, mute the prick if i don't like what they are saying or *GASP * just turn off the game and do something else for awhile.
lol that teens got his ass handed to him
U got that right : )
Defenseless child? Why is a child playing an M rated title? Get the kid off the game.
U got that right : ) Comes with the territory. Sometimes. For the kid anyway.
This is in the UK mate not the US, we don't have "M" rated games over here, the question should be why was a 13 year old playing an 18 rated game O.O
Patetoes potato