It's a sad day, not just for gamers, but for human beings everywhere. A toddler, five year old Jamar Johnson, was allegedly murdered by his mother, Kim Crawford, for somehow breaking her television by using it to play a Nintendo Wii. Crawford apparently flew into a rage about the broken television and proceeded to strike her son "twice in the back and twice in the stomach", an assault that is believed to have led to his death.

The assault in question took place on June 13th, after which Jamar claimed to experience excruciating pain, in addition to constant vomiting. Crawford didn't take Jamar to the hospital until a full five days later, when she noticed that her son had become cold and still. She had apparently delayed getting him help because of her fear of what would happen (to her) when her son's bruises and severe injuries were discovered.

Her fear was well placed; it was discovered at the hospital that the severe pain and vomiting Jamar had experienced was due to a lacerated pancreas and intestine. Imagine how hard she must have hit him to cause such injury. It was an infection to these wounded organs that eventually killed him, after he had been hospitalized. Hit the break for more on this tragic story.

When accosted by authorities, Crawford claimed that the boy had been playing at the park and that he fell, causing the injuries. Before this, she claimed that he had all of a sudden took ill and refused to wake up. All these claims were later revoked when Crawford confessed during the investigation that followed Jamar's death that she had been infuriated by her son and that she struck him harder than she had ever hit him.

Crawford has a long criminal record, laden with domestic incidents such as drug and assault (big surprise) charges, and even had an open warrant for probation violation at the time of these events. While her lawyer believes she was forced into her confessions by the police and that she hadn't intended on killing her son, Jamar's family fails to see how that matters at all. His grandmother had this to say:

"My beautiful grandson is gone, and he’s not coming back …it’s a tragedy. It’s inexcusable."

It's beyond me how exactly a TV can be broken from using a Wii console, but I don't think that's the relevant component here. Video game related crimes are never pretty, but this has to be the worst thing I've ever heard. Our sincerest condolences go out to Jamar's family in this troubling time. I hope that Crawford suffers the same fate as Jamar by accidentally breaking a TV in the max security prison she's headed for.

[Gamepron]