14-Year-Old Killed His Friend Violently, Almost Decapitating Him, After Losing Video Game

A 14-year-old boy was jailed Monday after a court in Ukraine heard that he killed his friend over a video game.

The court heard that Vasya Turda, son of a wealthy businessman, invited his friend, 15-year-old Vasya Pop, to his family’s mansion to show off the new 5D video game his father had gifted him. The two then started playing the game on a console on the second floor of the mansion. However, Turda attacked Pop with a knife after he lost a game. Pop then ran to the ground floor with blood pouring from his neck, as Turda chased him with a knife.

Pop’s body was found lying in a pool of blood by Turda’s grandmother several hours after the incident took place. Police said the boy had a total of 27 stab wounds and his neck was slashed with a knife.

Branding the attack “a maniac,” Mikhail Pop, the victim's father, said, “He stabbed my son with a knife. He had 27 stab wounds, his head almost severed, his neck cut from ear to ear. This was the first strike, the experts told me. Then he abused the corpse.”

The court also heard that the accused and the victim had a dispute after Pop pulled down Turda’s trousers in front of girls in a café and that the victim had provoked Turda with “unlawful violence, systematic harassment or grievous insult.”

Turda was convicted of “murder committed in the heat of passion” and sentenced to three and a half years in prison Monday. Local reports stated that prosecutors were demanding the sentence to be increased to at least 15 years in prison.

The incident comes a few days after Joshua Ancrum, a 17-year-old rising football player from Miami, Florida, was fatally shot by his childhood friend during an argument about a video game. Jatwan Phillips, 16, was taken into custody and charged with aggravated manslaughter. Family and friends of Ancrum gathered at Carol City Park on Monday to remember the victim.