Shot to death by cops......over a playstation 3
 

WILMINGTON, South Carolina (AP) -- A teenager accused of robbing a student of two new Playstation 3's on the day the popular game consoles were introduced was shot to death by police sent to arrest him.

Peyton Strickland, 18, was killed Friday at a house he shared with three roommates, New Hanover County Sheriff Sid Causey said.

"If this boy would've come to the door, opened the door, we probably wouldn't be talking," the sheriff said Sunday.

Roommate Mike Rhoton said Strickland was unarmed, but may have been holding a video game controller when he went to the door as it was bashed in by officers.

Authorities promised Monday to fully investigate the fatal shooting. "No one is above the law and no one is beneath its protection," District Attorney Ben David said. He declined to discuss details of the case.

The State Bureau of Investigation is examining the case and three deputies on the team were placed on paid leave, normal practice whenever officers fire their weapons, Causey said.

Arrest warrants alleged that Strickland, a student at Cape Fear Community College, and a University of North Carolina-Wilmington student stole two PlayStation units from another UNC-Wilmington student that day.

The sheriff said the robbery victim had waited three days in line to buy two Playstation 3 units for $641 each at a Wal-Mart. He was unloading the units at his campus apartment when one man beat him to the ground while another took the PlayStations, Causey said.

The sheriff said Strickland was shot by members of a special police unit who went to help university officers serve warrants. He would not say why the special team was assisting.

Strickland's dog, a German shepherd, also was shot to death.

The second man named in the warrants was arrested at another address and was released on bail on Saturday, authorities said.

The nationwide introduction of the Sony game system on November 17 was marked by rowdy crowds and store stampedes. One buyer waiting in line at a Connecticut store was shot by armed robbers.


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Ok, yeah.....Staling is bad and all....but they KILLED him? and his dog? Sheesh.

That sucks...people shooting other people over a PS3?!?!

i'm 100% completely disgusted by this bullsh1t :dead: :x

Hey, the lure of an inferior version of Madden is just too much for some people to handle.

I was gonna post this in sort of a joking manner until I read about the dog.

Same thing every console launch. I became disillusioned to it around Dreamcast. People die, stores get robbed, life moves on. Never any less sickening though.

And just think, after all the thieves and murderers get home with their brand new PS3's, the first-gen piece of sh*t will break in three months, just after the 90 warranty goes. Yeah, totally worth it. :roll:

Once again, death by greed. Nothing new.

Or burst into flame, or have some other stupid thing wrong with it that it will need to be recalled until after Febuary. All and all the same thing X-Box 360 had.

it does not matter what the product was. that thing is extremely expensive and crime is a crime, though i want to know why they decided to shoot him (and his dog?)

Talk about bored police officers. You'd think they would have better things to do then worry about a stolen PS3. Let alone raid some kids room for it.

yea and shoot him and his dog:o :roll:

so what you are saying is that the police should not care about thieves and their robberies? that does not fit in the picture very well and fails in logic. you would make a poor leader for any sort of system of justice!

I may not be spitfire but seriously going to some ones house without knowing if they really even stole something and shooting him and his dog or anyone for that matter is as much as a crime as stealing from some one...perhaps oh wait I hear that the cops stole from me I'm gonna now go to their homes and kill there entire family..yea thats real good logic.:roll:

such stuff is not what he was talking about. it was generally the cops worrying about criminals, their job!

Yeah spitfire didn't say anything about them shooting someone. He said the cops must have been bored to investigate a crime. You know do their job. That's just a ridiculous statement.

ah yes but to over do your job will get you knowhere I can't believe they aren't making a big deal of this but they make a big deal of michael richards calling some annoying hecklers the n word:roll: I take death allot more seriously than I do name calling...

It's good to know that even in this age of instant information, the general public still has no idea what the hell they're talking about.

Really, so you think it's normal to send a special team of officers for a robbery? Trust me police have many other things that are much more important to do. Further more using a gun is Level 6 of enforcement.

Level 1 Presence
Level 2 Holds
Level 3 Tasers and Pepper Spray
Level 4 Blunt weapons, IE Nightstick
Level 5 Cardiac choke hold
Level 6 Anything goes, guns whatever

So they basically went from 1 to 6. Which means they should both be fired. For 6 you have to be really threatened. And in the police science class I took we talked to many officers from the force and most of them have never had to shoot anyone, and at the worst had to do it once. One guy we talked to was a SWAT sniper for 6 years and he never fired a shot, no one on his team did.

These trigger happy cops are why sometimes it's safer to just let crimes happen. Before sending police the school should have inspected the robbery. Unless they thought he was armed calling the police was a spineless idiot move that no other school in the right mind would do.

When you went to school and something was stolen were the police called? Maybe after they knew the kid took it. But the police don't deal with it directly unless the kid has a weapon or is deemed harmful.

So no the police weren't doing their job, they were being idiots.

That's a ridiculous statement. Yes, I agree these cops acted way to aggressive, and probably had absolutely no reason to shot the guy. But it isn't safer to let crimes happen. Which crimes are okay to just let happen? I'm guessing from the context of this topic stealing must be okay, right? What about Rape? Drug Dealing? Or the guy who shots someone in the arm but doesnt kill them? I mean no one was killed, its not like he shot someone in the neck. Police have the responsibility to investigate a crime. A kid was assaulted and robbed, but the police should just not worry about it.

In all seriousness, the combined value of what was stolen from this student equated it to Grand Theft Hoopty.

Guess you missed the second half of that where I said

"Before sending police the school should have inspected the robbery. Unless they thought he was armed calling the police was a spineless idiot move that no other school in the right mind would do."

That is why I said that

...these guys should really get fired. Or a temporary discharge or whatever. Killing someone over a PS3 (and not to mention a dog that had nothing to do with it) is just wrong. Arrest them for theift? Okay, that seems fair enough. Gun him down along with his pet dog? No. Just. No.

Like Spitfire has said, the police were just plain idiots to just go in and kill the guy. It's just a PS3. I mean, if a guy went and parked in a disabled car park for ten minutes as he runs in to buy something at the store, do you think it is fair in the name of justice to shoot the guy as he comes back to his car? No. Usually a fine will take place from what I understand. And with robberies, does it come back to repayment? Pay for what you have stolen, or return what you have stolen, get slapped on the @$$ with a fine, possibly a jail sentece for a few months (or a year, depending what was stolen), and that's it.

So, my guess is that either the police were a bunch of idiots and had one to many drinks, or the police are hardcore gamers out to avenge the theft of ones brand new PS3 :roll:

Grand Theft is a huge fine and you do jail time, but there's bail. Your wallet will hurt enough after the fine though so you most likely won't be able to afford bail.

yeah and that's sorta the point where you're suposed regret stealing something that toy should of paid for....now you'll have to pay for bail which costs allot more...teaching some one one a lesson about stealing through money and jail is great. Shotting him and his dog is not.
It is my opinion each crime that's done to you by some one that person who did you wrong should get the same thing done back to them.
You know do unto others and all haha:lol:

Just tossing my thoughts into this...

The cops were retarded to do that. No question. How long did it take the kid to answer the door before they decided to break it down? Was it one knock? Two? A minute? Five?

The school really should have delt with this on their own. Stealing a Playstation 3, even TWO is no reason to get the police involved. Honestly, I'm surprised they even bothered with this.