Possible school shooting thwarted on Xbox LIVE

Chris White 15 Feb, 2010 at 11:57am ET Article published in Gaming

The Vancouver Sun today published a story about a potentially explosive situation and the altruistic efforts of a man playing on Xbox LIVE.

We all know how base and immature the Xbox LIVE community can be, but last Thursday a Canadian man flagged a conversation with another gamer when he started talking about committing a school shooting due to poor grades his senior year of high school.

While it’s not unheard of for gamers to say shocking things to get a rise on the Internet, the potential gunman went on to divulge detailed plants of his intentions to start shooting the following day. He even listed specific targets he would pursue.

Fearing that this was more than an idle threat, the Canadian gamer attempted to get more information out of the student, but the conversation ended immediately. The Canadian gamer then notified the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who, with the assistance of Microsoft Law Enforcement Securities, tracked the student down to a location in San Antonio, TX. The San Antonio police department then started an investigation and arrested the student who is now facing charges. The Vancouver Sun did not report on whether or not the suspect arrested was really planning to carry out his threats.

Either way, we commend the Canadian gamer, Microsoft, as well as the Port Alberni and San Antonio police for working so quickly to possibly save lives. It’s a good lesson that online gaming can be still be very serious and that saying things online can result in very real consequences.

Comments

15 Feb 2010 ~ 12:17pm Chip-Dapper So wait, i'm confused.

First video games cause school shootings, and now video games prevent them?

Is this bizarro day?
15 Feb 2010 ~ 1:28pm Bandrik Holy crap, that is awesome! Sad that a student was plotting (or at least bragging up) a terrible plan of action and was arrested... but awesome that the LIVE gamer stood up and potentially prevented another serious school shooting.

Also: goooooooooo mounties! =D
15 Feb 2010 ~ 1:46pm Winfrey Dudley Dooright ftw.
16 Feb 2010 ~ 2:32pm Nate Dang, I was hoping for a story where someone was planning on shooting up a school, but then got onto Xbox LIVE to blow off some steam instead. Violent video games are an outlet! Do you know how much stress you can relieve by repeatedly beating a hooker with a hammer with no consequences?
16 Feb 2010 ~ 2:42pm Jengo Yeah but if you are planning to shoot up a school you dont need an outlet for stress, you need some serious emotional help.
16 Feb 2010 ~ 5:01pm ardichoke

Jengo wrote:

Yeah but if you are planning to shoot up a school you dont need an outlet for stress, you need some serious emotional help.

Or someone needs to get the bullies to stop flushing your head in a toilet.
16 Feb 2010 ~ 11:38pm CrazyJoe So the article has a picture of the original XBox and has this sentence in it, "RCMP contacted Microsoft and their investigators were able to identify the computer through a numeric code" So was the guy using an XBox or a computer?

Did anyone proof this article?
16 Feb 2010 ~ 11:40pm Thrax The VanSun report was probably written by a journalist who knows nothing about PCs or consoles. Happens aaaaall the time in paper press.
17 Feb 2010 ~ 12:44am pigflipper

Thrax wrote:

The VanSun report was probably written by a journalist who knows nothing about PCs or consoles. Happens aaaaall the time in paper press.

Paper? presss? what is this you speak of?
17 Feb 2010 ~ 4:24pm chrisWhite Thrax nailed it, the reported probably got all the facts right, but didn't know enough about consoles to actually get the not-really-relevant photo matched correctly, I mean, it is an Xbox right? Or, could be that the writer didn't even choose the image and some clueless editor did.

I did do quite a bit of searching for more information from other sources, especially any mention of it in the San Antonio news but The Vancouver Sun seems to be the only one tipped off to the story and without any names being mentioned it's hard to try to track down any further info.