Police not pursuing video game link

This is an update on the January 27 post made about Erik Ayala’s shooting.

As reported in the Portland Mercury, Portland police are not pursuing a link between the violent shooting perpetrated by Erik Ayala last Saturday and his collection of video games. Detective Mark Slater, while noting there were many video games in Ayala’s apartment, concluded that Ayala possessed “…a wide variety of the kind you might find in any 24-year-old’s apartment.”

This doesn’t mean that people haven’t tried to pin video games as the main cause of the shooting rampage. Game Politics has been contacted by anti-game violence activist Jack Thompson, who unsuccessfully attempted to involve himself in the Ayala case. Thompson forwarded GP a copy of a January 26th e-mail in which the disbarred attorney complained to Portland Police Chief Rosie Sizer that detectives weren’t acting on his theory that video games prompted the rampage:

Dear Chief Sizer:

I have information that would be useful to establish further the apparent causal link between the violent video game play of alleged killer Ayala and the recent incident at the teen club.

Some detective in the Bureau with whom I spoke has been compromised by the video game industry, and he was anticipating my call.

I think your Bureau and you put public safety ahead of the pro-video game bias and gaming activities of this detective.

Please have some responsible detective contact me on this, as these incidents tied to games are popping up all over the place.  Thanks.

Thompson has a history for involving himself uninvited in cases where video games are related to violent crimes. Fortunately for Portland, wiser heads have prevailed for now.

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