8 most violent tech-related stories of 2010 - so far

Twitter, PlayStation, MySpace and an Apple store all get caught up in violent acts

By Bob Brown, Network World
February 16, 2010 10:13 AM ET

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It’s been a violent start to the year in technology circles, with headlines highlighting a mix of the latest tech sensations from Twitter to video games with criminal acts, including murder. Here’s a rundown:

Mom pays with life for shutting off Internet access: A 17-year-old gamer in Romania was arrested and placed under psychiatric care after allegedly stabbing his adoptive mother 17 times for cutting off Internet access to stop his addiction to game Counter-Strike. According to a story on the website Flat Line that is based on reporting from a Romanian website, the suspect didn’t turn himself in until after going to an Internet café to play a little more of the game.

PlayStation fight leads to son stabbing dad: An Italian teen named Mario was arrested after allegedly stabbing his father in the neck following an argument over tactics to be used in playing a PlayStation soccer game called FIFA 2009, according to a Reuters report.

MySpace argument leads to AK-47 gunfire: The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported in late January that an online MySpace fight between two 13-year-old girls spiraled into a pair of attempted murder charges for two adults when they allegedly wound up spraying a neighborhood with AK-47 rifle shots. One of the teen girls was shot in the ear.

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The first Twitter murder? New York police say a man studying to become a nurse was gunned down after an argument with a lifelong friend over a woman spilled over from Twitter into the streets of Harlem. The victim’s mother told the New York Daily News: "That's not a reason to shoot somebody. That's crazy. I don't know what's going on with that Twitter thing."

Terrorizing Apple: A 17-year-old in New York was arrested after allegedly making a terrorist threat at an Apple Store. According to a Macworld account, the teen allegedly typed the following on to one of the store’s Macs: "I have threatened your store and all its employees with a bloody death ... whoever the crew maybe working, or the innocent citizens that walk in ... will be eliminated with the force of a... bomb loaded with C4, strapped to my chest." The teen, who signed the letter with his friend’s dad’s name, said it was all a joke.

Real World of Warcraft: A 27-year-old Florida man was arrested after allegedly strangling his mother and tossing his son across the room in the wake of the man's mother attempting to get him to stop playing World of Warcraft.The man's grandfather tried to stop him from assaulting his mother and eventually wound up shooting the man in head (non-fatally), according to police.

Man crushed by computer gear: A man in Australia was killed after computer server gear weighing more than 400 pounds slipped from a forklift and crushed him as he was helping to unload it.

Batter up: A Georgia man was arrested after allegedly smashing 29 flat-panel TV sets worth about a total of $23,000 at a Walmart store in suburban Atlanta, according to the Smoking Gun. It was not immediately clear why the man went on the rampage, which was caught on security cameras.

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