Got news?   tips@destructoid.com  |  Never miss a story:   RSS + Twitter + YouTube
Hey! New here? Destructoid is a gaming discussion community, updated nearly every 20 minutes. Make a quick avatar to comment and enter our contests. Take the tour!

 


Home Xbox 360 updates

Father who murdered his child over Xbox 360 on trial, the media are all bloodthirsty jackals

1:45 PM on 12.14.2006, Nex 57 comments

Father who murdered his child over Xbox 360 on trial, the media are all bloodthirsty jackals photo
     Xbox 360

Tyrone Spellman is a jerk.

Actually, "jerk" doesn't quite cover the guy who beat his 17 month old child to death after she accidentally knocked over his Xbox 360. He became so upset by a child too young to realize what she had done that he punched her in the face and literally threw her about the room. I'm probably going to have to spend a few hours coming up with a new insult for this guy, and it's probably going to take a few packs of smokes, a bottle of Mad Dog and a thesaurus full of swears.

Mr. Spellman's trial started recently in Philadelphia and the entire proceeding is the sort of thing that gives Jack Thompson a hard-on. Above and beyond the fact that almost every point actually having to do with gaming is mis-reported on in the courtroom, Mr. Spellman would have been a dangerous sicko whether he was playing GRAW or Hungry, Hungry Hippos. As usual, the media coverage seems to actually be trying to connect his playing video games with the fact that this guy decided to go smash in the head of a child. To wit, I present a quote from the article;

Spellman, 25, said he was playing one of Tom Clancy's "Ghost Recon" games - a violent combat epic - in a front bedroom of his family's Brewerytown home that Thursday morning, Sept. 7.

Does adding the phrase "a violent combat epic" actually add to the validity of this article? Do they actually believe the game somehow caused Tyrone to wig out and kill a child? The levels to which the media will sink to pin violence on the latest societal scapegoat have gone too far. If this was a less heinous crime, I'd like to say that they were as bad as the perpetrator, but, well, you can't really compete with the kind of scum who murders a kid.


Next page: More Does it suck? stories




Joseph Leray's Avatar
Joseph Leray at 12/14/2006 14:09
Jacky's already been plastered all over Dtoid during the Bully trial.

Either way, Spellman was a baby killer way before he ever touched Tom Clancy, as Nex said.
BlindsideDork's Avatar
BlindsideDork at 12/14/2006 14:11
Haha it was more so a joke..
icarus's Avatar
icarus at 12/14/2006 14:11
Worthless parent, worthless journalist.
brad drac's Avatar
brad drac at 12/14/2006 14:19
You need a licence to drive a car, have a television or a pet dog... But not so to have a child. Any incompetent, brutish little shit can have as many kids as they want, and fuck them up worse than their parents did to them.

Games don't make people violent. Shitty childhoods do.
Joseph Leray's Avatar
Joseph Leray at 12/14/2006 14:21
The problem is that he just happened to be playing a game at the time. If she had turned off the TV during a movie, or shit in his basketball shoes, it'd be a different story. Does basketball cause violence? "Of course not, that's ludicrous!" they would say. But that's exactly the kind of reasoning people use. When's the last time a fight broke out a LAN party?
Pepillou2's Avatar
Pepillou2 at 12/14/2006 14:24
those games are based on war
jackal thompson should try to ban war
SubOrbital's Avatar
SubOrbital at 12/14/2006 14:28
I couldn't give a toss about Jack Thompson, but what breaks my heart is the fact this guy brutally killed his own child. I hope they kill him in prison. The fact he's a gamer is an aside in my eyes. He's a baby killer. I hope he gets what he deserves.
Joseph Leray's Avatar
Joseph Leray at 12/14/2006 14:35
I'm pretty sure that's a given, Sub.
Oni's Avatar
Oni at 12/14/2006 14:42
The media is so quick to pin this right on the games he was playing it's obscene. I'm sure he would've done the same thing if his little girl had knocked over his stereo, or scratched his car.

A psycho is a psycho. The fact he was playing a game has nothing to do with it.

Jesus Christ . . . I just had a horrible thought. What if he left the mic on on his controller while he was doing all this?! Holy fuck, maybe people actually HEARD him doing this!

Excuse me. I feel sick to my stomach.
Ballistic90's Avatar
Ballistic90 at 12/14/2006 15:29
If the kid scratched up her father's car and the father killed her, then I'd guess we'd be banning cars right about now.

"Them thing's DANGEROUS!"
Ballistic90's Avatar
Ballistic90 at 12/14/2006 15:31
No matter how you look at it, the kid is dead and the father is 100% responsible. If the father couldn't contain his anger or be a responsible parent, then he shouldn't have had a kid or an Xbox 360 anyways. Regardless, he's a danger to everyone around him.
Aetsen's Avatar
Aetsen at 12/14/2006 15:31
This guy Tyrone Spellman is an "adult" right? He's not some impressionable young mind being poisoned by the likes of Grand Theft Auto. Video games are completely irrelevant to this man behavior. I hope he dies from a rusty shiv to the stomach and the subsequent infection.
BahamutZero's Avatar
BahamutZero at 12/14/2006 15:40
this is no reason to get all stabby. now if it was my wii sensor bar on the other hand, babys gon pay
Konradl's Avatar
Konradl at 12/14/2006 16:26
apparently the sound that makes you punch infants is present in GRAW...

(lame Dane Cook reference)
generaldane's Avatar
generaldane at 12/14/2006 18:52
what the fuck that bastard should have his dick cut off and feed it to a lion then cut off his fingers one by one then raped by a thousands elephant seriously i have never read a piece of news that angers me more this guys should not bne killed he should be tortue (worse than death)
NameOf_A_VGChar's Avatar
NameOf_A_VGChar at 12/14/2006 19:04
...

This is just horrible beyond words. And then I read that his girlfriend or whatever is 8 months pregnant, so that means another child on the way. It's a good thing that this guy is going to be put away for a long time. He should be absolutely prohibited from ever SEEING the new child.

Sickening.
djnexus911's Avatar
djnexus911 at 12/14/2006 20:44
People like this shouldnt be parents, I mean come on who snaps everyday and kills there kid over an xbox.. I think this is a rare case were people like this guy maybe shouldnt play violent games, some people might disagree.
Vorin's Avatar
Vorin at 12/14/2006 21:06
omfg
renge37's Avatar
renge37 at 12/14/2006 23:03
whats his gamer tag? I wanna send him bad feedback...
devinypin's Avatar
devinypin at 12/14/2006 23:04
Ballistic90,

you're actually on to something with cars. automobile related accidents are one of the biggest killers. If the government wanted to do the best thing to protect us, it would build better roads and regulate driving and motor vehicles more. Not outlawing gambling or regulating violent games...
t_phoxx's Avatar
t_phoxx at 12/14/2006 23:07
This guy is seriously f'ed up! Violence is caused in the brain, BY the brain. No game could ever create that in a man, although when i died playing Mario as a teenager, it did PROVOKE violence, (BUT NOT CAUSE IT!!!!) In this case, The child's innocent mistake caused it, although the man was obviously a danger, which was made immenently clear by his GodAwful response to the situayion. HANG HIM!!!!!!!!!!!
Mxyzptlk's Avatar
Mxyzptlk at 12/14/2006 23:24
Wow. There are no words that describe what an incredibly pathetic person this guy is.

That said, since when does a Xbox 360 cost $600?
Tlack's Avatar
Tlack at 12/14/2006 23:46
paging jack thompson..
Im OK's Avatar
Im OK at 12/15/2006 00:37
Ok, not sure what's going on, but I've made several attempts to post to this thread, but I keep getting a flash of some error message, which lasts for less than a second, which isn't long enough for me to read.
Im OK's Avatar
Im OK at 12/15/2006 00:38
Yet that one went through... WTF?
Im OK's Avatar
Im OK at 12/15/2006 00:41
Okay, got a screen grab of the error:

"Warning: Header may not contain more than a single header, new line detected. in /usr/home/destructoid/public_html/elephant/site.phtml on line 113
Please click here to continue."

That flashes on a white background for maybe a quarter of a second, then returns to this page.
Im OK's Avatar
Im OK at 12/15/2006 00:47
What the hell... okay, since I was able to post all of that shit, I tried redoing my original post, but then I got the same damned error again.
Im OK's Avatar
Im OK at 12/15/2006 00:48
Gist: This guy = asshat. Jack Thompson = asshat. Xbox 360 = not to blame for this. Media = clueless as usual.
Im OK's Avatar
Im OK at 12/15/2006 00:50
*whew*
mh371298's Avatar
mh371298 at 12/15/2006 01:14
"violent combat epic" - uhhhh, isn't that what is happening overseas in IRAQ!!!
Tlack's Avatar
Tlack at 12/15/2006 10:47
Im OK,

Odd, we've never seen that error before; what browser are you using?
Teamjesus's Avatar
Teamjesus at 12/15/2006 11:48
This aint right.
Really Beating your child like a ragdoll may be fun to some psychotic people,but to a normal like us think just setting you console upright and putting the child back in the crib will do fine.
SubOrbital's Avatar
SubOrbital at 12/15/2006 14:50
Amen, Teamjesus. I agree. I eagerly await reading a report of this guy getting his in prison.
Gamechamp's Avatar
Gamechamp at 12/15/2006 22:53
If you interupt him while he's playing Dance Dance Revolution, he starts dancing on your skull.
Volcanon's Avatar
Volcanon at 12/16/2006 03:52
Guys, I believe that it is obvious that video games are definately to blame here. If he didn't play video games, he wouldn't own an xbox 360. If he didn't own an xbox 360, his daughter would've never knocked it over. And if she never knocked it over, she would never have been killed. If she never had been killed, I wouldn't be here reading this article and would instead be reading some other random news article that shows that people can somehow be evil asshole without the aid of videogames...
chronohart's Avatar
chronohart at 12/16/2006 23:43
First, WHAT A SICK BASTARD!!!! Only sick bastards would go off and kill a baby (or anyone else for that matter) because they broke their video game....

Second, I HATE THE GENERAL MEDIA!!!! They will put every twist they can to make their money. They know video game violence has been a HUGELY controversial topic for years now and they just won't give up.
Vorin's Avatar
Vorin at 12/17/2006 10:28
Well, Volcanon it's already been stated that this man had already beaten his baby before. Also it's quite obvious he suffers from a mental condition. The "breaking of the 360" was just the last straw I guess.
Macaca's Avatar
Macaca at 12/17/2006 15:39
Games dont kill people, neither do guns. People kill people. I think they should ban stupidity and moronism, make it punishable by exile (or sterilisation maybe).
Macaca's Avatar
Macaca at 12/17/2006 15:45
I forgot to second mh371298: why does the media jump on violence in games where one american child is killed 'by game violence', while thousands have been killed in Irak (for very disputable reasons)? Are Iraqi childs less important?

Answer for the mass media: yes, one American (or western) child killed in insane rage is more important than 1000 little Arabs starved, bombed and orphaned.

Stalin was right: one man dead is murder, 1000 dead is a statistic (only he said a million...)
Chaotic_Vampiracy's Avatar
Chaotic_Vampiracy at 12/18/2006 12:59
There's a huge difference between jail and prison folks. This man here is going to prison. People who either abuse, molest, or harm a child in anyway get messed up by other prisoners way worse than any of the others. Serial shooters (who dont kill children) show up and look to the cho-mo's and are like "wow, you're fucked up." Take it from a guy whos been forced to watch "prison footage" while locked up in juvenile detention multiple times.
christpunchermpls's Avatar
christpunchermpls at 12/19/2006 09:44
This guy is the biggest loser in the history of the world.
Who hits a kid? There is nothing that should cause that. Much less a fucking game system, fuck buy another, shit let her knock it over and break it three times before you even yell, The third time would at least be funny, shit she'll 1 1/2 old, what a fucking D-bag,
garder's Avatar
garder at 01/07/2007 04:54
can u spell anger managment
michiyoyoshiku's Avatar
michiyoyoshiku at 01/07/2007 07:06
Some Media types need to be punched in the face and thrown about a room. Our favorite medium Demands more respect than this.

Also that man needs to be butt raped to death in prison for what he did to his poor daughter, Some people.namly him should not procreate. I Chose not to have kids so my kids wouldn't have to deal with Douches like him or the kids of douches like him that did survive.
jjintheuk's Avatar
jjintheuk at 01/07/2007 15:36
I fucking hate that guy, I agree with everything bad you say about him, I got so pissed of reading the first paragraph.

And then when the press / court whoever tried to turn it onto the games, they have not got a clue, they do this all the time. Everyone knows what to expect when buying a game, they have ratings on and everything but I dont feel like going out killing people after playing a round of GOW. And abyway games like GRAW are about combating terrorism anyway!

I hate that guy, and I hate people that try and make great games sound like a danger to society.
jjintheuk's Avatar
jjintheuk at 01/07/2007 15:38
Even worse is thae fact that some news sites report all the kid did was pull out the power cord, and then he tried to cover up the crime to his wife / girlfriend.

"Tyrone Spellman, 25, struck the 17-month-old toddler and threw her across the room last Thursday, police said. When the child's mother returned home to the 1500 block of North 29th Street, Spellman told her the girl was sleeping."
I think that was in the Inquirer
Ninjajuice66's Avatar
Ninjajuice66 at 01/07/2007 18:35
This man is scum. I hope that he knocks over Bubba's XBox, so that he can feel what it's like to get popped in the face...Then raped.
SubOrbital's Avatar
SubOrbital at 01/08/2007 14:26
Kill him please. After he's dropped the soap and had his ass raped. Fucking scum.
ScarCeLLe13's Avatar
ScarCeLLe13 at 01/10/2007 20:39
peple r fucked up, idc if she knoked down a 360,wii, and ps3 i wouldent beat the kid to deth
prev next 50 comments

Returning Dtoiders: login now to post a comment

Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just Create an avatar now - it's fast and free: PLUS you also get your own gaming blog and begin posting stories and uploading videos in our open community area that may also appear on our home page. Sign up and we'll guide you through it, it's easy and 100% anonymous.




 Original Videos

 Reviews
Mad Dog McCree Gunslinger Pack
Overlord II
Yosumin Live!
Let's Tap
Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Wii)
View all Game Reviews

 Community blogs -   39767 Dtoiders!

This month's theme: Untapped Potential

New to Dtoid? Read the survival guide


 Originals

The best and worst '4th' videogames EVER!











more original Destructoid stories



 Popular now more













Destructoid is:
Nick Chester
Editor-in-Chief
Jim Sterling
Reviews Editor
Dale North
News Editor
Hamza Aziz
Community Manager
Anthony Burch
Features Editor
Rey Gutierrez
Video editor & director
Niero
Founder, publisher
Letters to the editors
tips@destructoid.com
Associate Editors
Ashley Davis Jonathan Holmes
Brad Nicholson Jonathan Ross
Brad Rice Jordan Devore
Chad Concelmo Matthew Razak
Colette Bennett Tom Fronczak
Conrad Zimmerman Topher Cantler
Dyson Samit Sarkar
Contributors
Adam Dork
Ben Perlee
Daniel Lingen
Joseph Leray
Joe Burling
Mikey
Will Maddock
Stella Wong




get involved

register or login
post a blog
post a forum
enter a contest
discuss a review
contribute a news tip
write a guest editorial
support

new member's guide
login assistance
tech support
report abuse
email our editors
read our dev blog
nuclear crisis?
keep in touch

RSS feed
Twitter
Facebook
Myspace
Flickr
Game nights
Meet-ups
seriously

about us
advertising
terms of use
privacy policy
jobs at MM
buy our crap
our network

Tomopop
Japanator




Destructoid is an independently-run publication forged by our love of video games and the gaming community's need of accountable enthusiast press
living the dream since March 16, 2006