Grand Theft Auto KIller

[wraggster]

Via this is london

A teenager who was crazed by high-strength cannabis butchered a grandmother after 'voices in his head' told him to stab a woman.

Ezekiel Maxwell, a paranoid schizophrenic, launched the horrific attack after years of smoking super-strength 'skunk weed'.

The 17-year-old claimed 'gangster voices' from the ultra-violent computer game Grand Theft Auto had set him on a mission to stab a black woman.

He is the second teenage cannabis addict in a month to be found guilty of killing others after smoking the substance. Thomas Palmer, 18, was jailed for life for murdering his two friends with a hunting knife near their homes in Wokingham, Berkshire.

Maxwell prowled the streets with a kitchen knife until he came across Carmelita Tulloch

Maxwell prowled the streets with a kitchen knife until he came across Carmelita Tulloch as she walked to her job at a photocopying firm.

He stabbed her seven times, leaving her to die in a pool of blood as he fled home to his family. The case highlights the dangers of the highly potent 'skunk'.

The number of under-18s treated for smoking the drug has doubled to nearly 10,000 in a year and medical experts said the link between it and mental health problems is now impossible to ignore.

Maxwell attacked 51-year-old Mrs Tulloch on September 5 last year after a night smoking skunk and playing Grand Theft Auto.

He believed he was one of the principal characters called Carl Johnson, who carries a knife in the Playstation game, Croydon Crown Court was told.

Judge Warwick McKinnon said it was "a vile and quite senseless killing of an entirely innocent woman".

Simon Denison, prosecuting, told the court: "Maxwell had been planning to stab a woman for seven days, it had to be a black Afro-Caribbean woman. He didn't know why he had done it, he just had to do it."

"He described the voices as taking over his thoughts and his body. They made him do things like cut his hair so he looked more like a gangster.

"Maxwell said in the months before the killing he was playing Grand Theft Auto to the exclusion of anything else.

"He had smoked cannabis the night before, he took a knife from the kitchen and went out to stab someone. After he stabbed Mrs Tulloch he ran home and told his mother what he had done.

"The psychiatric assessment is that he is a great risk to others and will be for many years."

Maxwell lived 500 yards away from Mrs Tulloch on the same housing estate in Kennington, South London. He attacked her within five minutes walk of her home.

The youngster started smoking cannabis and skunk as well as taking cocaine at 14. He had previously been given cautions for possessing cannabis and has two convictions for mugging and assault.

Maxwell said he started hearing voices after smoking the drug and was referred to a psychiatric team by his GP in June last year.

He was prescribed anti-psychotic drugs and his case was reviewed four times. It was due to be considered again the day after he attacked Mrs Tulloch.

Instead, Maxwell went to a police station with his uncle and solicitor and handed himself in. He told officers: "I am given medication for my head and eyes, I don't know why I have been told to take this medication. I have not taken it for two weeks.

"On September 4 I played Grand Theft Auto until late. When I got up I felt a bit unhappy and aggressive. "I went out of the house at about 10am."

"I have a knife with me. I didn't know why I had a knife, I saw a woman, I stabbed her with the knife, I stabbed her three times, there was a lot of blood. After I stabbed the woman I ran home."

Inspiration: Maxwell was obsessed with violent computer game Grand Theft Auto

Maxwell has since been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Yesterday he was detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act after pleading guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Paul Jenkins, chief executive of mental health charity Rethink, said: 'While there can be several triggers for mental illness, we know that if used by people under 18, cannabis doubles the risk of psychosis.

Professor John Henry, a clinical toxicologist, said: "People are beginning to realise that cannabis is not the puff and relax substance that people used to use."

Studies show there is an increased instance of schizophrenia in cannabis users, in some people as much as a ten-Marjorie Wallace, Chief Executive of mental health charity SANE, said: "This has all the hallmarks of similar stories where a paranoid schizophrenic has not taken medication but has used cannabis.

"Cannabis, especially skunk, can act as a trigger to psychotic relapse in which someone may lose touch with reality and become a serious risk to himself and others.

"We expect the inquiry into this case will reveal the same faultlines underlying many of the 55 homicides involving mental illness each year."

Mrs Tulloch, a receptionist, was married to Prince, 42, and had two adult daughters, Claudia and Andrea, from a previous marriage and a threeyearold granddaughter called Tianna.

Her sister Carol Smith said: "Someone has to take responsibility, how can he commit a crime like that and no one is responsible?

"There need to be regular check-ups for people like him."

[Triv1um]

These stories are starting to get old now.

Its just a excuse.

[eatnooM]

Anything violent mixed with people who can't distiguish between reality and fiction isn't going to end well, it just so happens that video games are intensely popular, GTA especially.

[jammet]

Thomson will be all over this, like a vulture, no doubt. Yet another raving lunatic he can use as an excuse to go after Take Two. Even though it is absolutely clear that this guy was mentally broken and on drugs since he was 14.

There are plenty mentally sick people who will break and go on a killing spree for any given reason, or none at all. That's the sad truth, it doesn't need a game, a movie or a rock band to get them started.

My point is, do not blame the game. Blame those people, for crying out loud.

[Spotfist]

I totally agree with the last sentance, people like this need to have more attention than what is usually given but the reason why there is not alot of help I would say is down to the amount of people who end up this bad. if only a REALLY small percentage end up killing in the end ie .01% then it would be hard to tell who needs the special attention and who doesn't...

I have had previouse experience with people of this tnature and it can be really hard to point them in the right direction but what makes it even worse are that most parents are too busy or just don't have any thought as to what there children are doing. Of course all the blame can't be put on them but in this example I really do ask myself, where were the parents, surely they must have known that there son had problems...?

I certainly don't think that a single game can be blamed for this behavier hell Im even tempted to say that it's not down to the drugs but instead the way in which the games where played and perhaps the amount of drugs used, for one the guy wasn't even taking his medication?!?! what the hell is that all about??

[emuking]

so that crazy person, no psycho used gta as an excuse for being crazy, hmm im going to rob a bank tomorrow and blame it on gta too cause you know games talk to crazy people (tightens noose) j/k but you get my point

[jimjamjahaa]

he smokes weed!!!
hes mentally unstable
he plays grand theft auto!!!

[goity]

How the hell can this be blamed on video games?
I bet it'll turn out he never played the game, just like pretty much every other case.

[John Doe 696]

Blame the weed,blame the game,blame society for not caring,but god forbid we should blame the murderer!

[Mr. Shizzy]

This is bull$hit
IMHO, the kid was a nut case to begin with.
GTA & Weed told him to do it?

Try, this: He was doing dangerous drugs like cocaine. And he is a schitzo, who wasn't taking his meds...

He would have eventually snapped, and harmed somebody regardless of weed or video games


EDIT: Besides, any normal person who smokes weed, is far too lazy to go stab someone anyway. LOL