yu-gi-oh blamed for suicude

[DarkLiger]

In light of our extreme dislike of soccor moms I thought I;d share this with all of you

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mother blames game in suicide of 11-year-old son

Relatives say boy obsessed over Yu-Gi-Oh!; enthusiasts say it's harmless


Lorenzo Diaz was an upbeat, well-liked student who proudly took on the role of big brother.

But the 11-year-old also had a fascination withanimation-based card games, particularly Yu-Gi-Oh! Family members say his interest in the game, which also can include dice, started about two years ago but turned obsessive in recent months.

Local Yu-Gi-Oh! enthusiasts say the game is harmless fun. But Lorenzo's mother says his involvement in the game led to his death.

On the evening of Nov. 10, Lorenzo was found dead at a North Hill park, hanging from a sagging, chain-link fence. A blue, cloth dog leash was wrapped around his neck, with the leash's metal clasp hooked to the fence.

Earlier, he had been playing with dice that came with a Yu-Gi-Oh! card deck. His mother, Rosita Jackson, thinks his death came down to a dice roll.

Lorenzo was baby-sitting his two younger brothers that evening. Their mother had gone to Salineville in Columbiana County to tend to a cancer-stricken aunt. Stepfather Marlo Jackson was returning home from a job in North Carolina.

"Lorenzo was a very mature, responsible 11-year-old,'' his mother said. He had helped me with his brothers before.... He was happy that he was helping. He was very proud of that.''

According to Akron police records, Lorenzo's brothers, 6 and 8, said he had gotten mad because Brutus, the family dog, had torn through trash in the family's Oxford Avenue home. In the aftermath of the trash incident, Lorenzo told his 8-year-old brother, Mervin, that he would kill himself if he rolled a "6'' on the Yu-Gi-Oh! dice.

Rosita Jackson said Mervin told her the same story as well.

"The dog tore the trash up, and then Lorenzo got mad because they had to clean the trash up,'' she said.

Lorenzo and Mervin headed into the basement and grabbed Lorenzo's purple and gold Yu-Gi-Oh! dice.

"Mervin rolled the dice and got a 4, '' the mother said. "Lorenzo said `You live!' Then Lorenzo rolled a 6.... Lorenzo tells Mervin, "I die!' and he leaves.''

Lorenzo's brothers waited for him to return, but he never did. A short time later, a neighbor out walking her dog found Lorenzo at Sammis Park, across the street from the boy's home.
The Summit County medical examiner has ruled the death a suicide.

Medical investigators say it would have only taken a couple of minutes for him to be unconscious. With his 110-pound frame weighing down the strap that he was hanging from, he may have lacked the strength to lift himself up once he started, they said.

"I know he didn't do it intentionally, because that just wasn't Lorenzo,'' Jackson said.

Detectives ruled out homicide. Lorenzo had no defensive wounds or bruises, nothing to indicate another person was involved.

"When you find someone under strange circumstances, you look for trauma or signs there was force used or there was any kind of a struggle

At 5th Ave. Flea Market on South Arlington Road in Green, where Lorenzo often went to participate in Yu-Gi-Oh! tournaments, youths and adults fill tables most weekends for "duels.'' They battle with cards to try and take each other's "life points'' away.

The Yu-Gi-Oh! cards feature monsters and other characters that have special powers.

"It teaches you a lot of strategy, where you're trying to plan ahead and think more,'' said Mike Diocedo, 16, of Canal Fulton. ``It's not evil.''

John Chance, who oversees the more advanced Yu-Gi-Oh! matches, said he understands some parents' concerns.

"But if they really looked at the game for what it is, they would understand that it has nothing to do with evil,'' Chance said. "These kids who play this game are all good kids.''

Helping Lorenzo's family

Those who knew and loved Lorenzo say he was too stable to end his life.

Lorenzo's mother and biological father, Gilbert Diaz, divorced when Lorenzo was a toddler. But the parents remained friends and made sure Lorenzo and his siblings maintained a close relationship to their father, who lives in Columbus.

A sixth-grader at Jennings Middle School, Lorenzo liked cooking. He had dreams of opening a restaurant that served rice and beans and his other favorite foods. The boy also had a passion for art.

Despite having just moved to Akron from Salineville in May, Lorenzo was quick to make an impression at school. After he died, students, faculty and parents raised $1,300 for the family, who had no life insurance.

Neighbors in North Hill collected about $700. An anonymous hairstylist who didn't even know the family contributed another $300.
"In that little bit of time, he touched people's hearts,'' Jackson said of Lorenzo. "And a lot of people were touched by this when this happened.''

On a recent day, the mother admired a memorial to her son at the fence where he died. Friends left flowers, white teddy bears and a white cross. The flowers are now wilted, and a candle in a glass holder has burned out.

"We're leaving Akron,'' Jackson said, adding that the family is moving back to Salineville. "I can't take it no longer. I walk out of my front door, and this (fence) is what I see.''

Inside her home, moving boxes mix with reminders of Lorenzo -- the most prominent being his artwork and school photos on a poster board.

"Our lives will never be the same,'' Jackson said. "I once had five boys and now I have four. You can't explain the hurt.''

Lorenzo is buried in Columbiana County's Kensington next to his great-grandmother. He would have turned 12 next week.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

While I feel sorry for the kid, the mother is a complete fucking loon

[Kal]

...jesus christ. That has really put things into perspective.

And yeah, mother is a loon.

[Mystic Fire]

Yeah she's definitely cuckoo. She says the game is evil, yet she still let him play it when she could have taken it from him. Parents are still in control of their kids at 11 years old. I mean come on.

[Phantom6]

Complete fucking idiocy. She left an 11 year old in charge of two other children (As the article makes it seem on more than one occassion) odds are the Television did more raising of those kids than she did.

The boy kills himself and she blames a game and TV show. doesn't even occur to her that he may have been depressed, having to grow up that fast tends to cause it. And eleven year olds aren't normally the most forthcoming with their true emotions.

As for the method of suicide, Hanging by a Dog leash from a Chainlink fence.

... ... ...


That just doesn't sound possible I mean if he was 110LBS at age eleven he was either overweight and short or that was one hell of a tall fence.

Andd the reason he did it. he was upset that the dog tore into the trash and made a bet?

This is either a lie or the kid was really unbalanced.

[GrnPsychoDragon]

Originally Posted by Phantom6

That just doesn't sound possible I mean if he was 110LBS at age eleven he was either overweight and short or that was one hell of a tall fence.

Andd the reason he did it. he was upset that the dog tore into the trash and made a bet?

This is either a lie or the kid was really unbalanced.

That's what bothers me the most. My god, he kills himself over garbage???? And what an unorthadox way of killing yourself. Maybe he managed to choke himself though, perhaps by accident, and not really "hang" himself

[Lord Mercury]

Originally Posted by Phantom6

That just doesn't sound possible I mean if he was 110LBS at age eleven he was either overweight and short or that was one hell of a tall fence.

I remember seeing the fence on the news. It was pretty tall, only problem would've been him getting up there in the first place. Or he might have been a damn good fence climber.

[jaguarranger]

Blame the damn dog, not the game.

People do weird stuff when they're upset, and in this case he was upset at the dog knocking over the trash.

[The Night]

His mother is an idiot. Just because he used a Yu-gi-oh dice to decide doesn't mean it has to do with Yu-gi-oh. He could have just as well used a regular dice.

[AndrosTheRedRanger]

hahahahahahaha!! Dumb kids.

[Gold Samurai]

back when PR's rangers was the hot thing for 1993 two boys killed a girl with sticks because of something they saw on the show right?

[Zelgodis1600]

Ok if the kid killed himself then there was obviously something going on that most didnt know about. I mean come one there must have been something. And Yu-Gi-Oh was not it. I mean if this kid only saw the dubbed stuff then there was nothing that he could have seen that said kill yourself. His mother is just looking to blame something.

Or the most logical thing, the kid didnt mean to kill himself, only got in over his head when he was trying to make it look like he was killing himself. Either way the kid had issues. Regardless if his family knew about them or not. Yu-Gi-Oh is not evil. Its a television show and really fun cardgame. Nothing satanic and definetely has nothing that says to kill yourself.

This mother needs to come to terms with her own parental shortcomings and realize that she did not see the problems her son was having.





Hey does anyone have a link to the actual article?

[Phantom6]

Originally Posted by Gold Samurai

back when PR's rangers was the hot thing for 1993 two boys killed a girl with sticks because of something they saw on the show right?

They later admitted they'd never actually seen a single episode of the show.

[Pocket Rocket]

I'll bet it turns out this kid was abused by someone in his family. During the 80s there was some child prodigy who killed himself and Dungeons & Dragons was blamed, but it turned out the kid was being sexually molested and stuff like that. Sometimes kids who are being abused turn to games like D&D or Yu-Gi-Oh to escape the harsh reality of their situation and create a fantasy world to escape to when the real world gets overwhelming.

[OmegaRide3.0]

Originally Posted by AndrosTheRedRanger

hahahahahahaha!! Dumb kids.

hahahahahahahahaha!!!! Dumb soccer moms

[SlayerboyM88]

Originally Posted by MegaRanger2.1

hahahahahahahahaha!!!! Dumb soccer moms

While i agree that soccer mom's complain way too much; technically, i don't see this woman as being one. Soccer moms are OCD, this woman just seemed to be MIA.

[Cellanoid]

Makes me wish they gave out e-mail addresses to these people so we can tell them every day how stupid they are...

[mrtpug]

Darwinism reigns again

[keller]

I suppose blaming it on card game being evil is easier than looking for the real reasons her son hung himself.

[KCJ506]

I started laughing when I read:

"His mother, Rosita Jackson, thinks his death came down to a dice roll."

I find this funny for some reason.

[Sentai Master]

Ugh. You know what? If the Mom wants to blame the game, maybe she should re-analyze what happened prior to his death. The Dog tore through the trash, which got Lorenzo extremely angry. He then told his brother that he would kill himself if he rolled a 6 on the Dice. Where, exactly, is the connection here between the suicide and the Yu-gi-oh! game? OK, he used dice that conveniently came from a Yu-gi-oh! booster pack. But does that really matter? He could have just as easily used Monopoly dice, or D&D dice, or just regular dice. Furthermore, Lorenzo's brother says he doesn't think it was intentional that Lorenzo killed himself. Nothing, NOTHING, points to Yu-gi-oh! prompting a boy to commit suicide. It's a terrible thing that happened, but pointing the finger doesn't help at all.