Thai video game distributors suspend sales of the "Grand Theft
Auto" after a Thai high school student stabs a taxi driver to death
trying to imitate scenes from the controversial video game.
 
BANGKOK, THAILAND (AUGUST 5, 2008) REUTERS -
 A Thai video game distributor halted sales of "Grand Theft
Auto" on Monday (August 4) after a teenager confessed to robbing and
murdering a taxi driver while trying to recreate a scene from the
controversial game.
    New Era Interactive Media who is the sole importer of the game has been
sending a request to outlets and stores to pull the game of their shelves and
urging video game arcades to pull their game from service.
    Stores in Bangkok on Tuesday (August 5) are seen pulling the Grand
Theft Auto game from their shelves after the distributor announced on Monday
about the crime.
    " If kids play this game, they are too young to know what is right
or wrong. So, this crime will happen. said the game shop owner who refused to
give the name but insisted that parents should take a good care if their
children play this kind of "criminal role" game. 
    The 18-year-old high school student has confessed to robbing and
murdering a taxi driver on Monday after trying to imitate scenes from the
controversial "Grand Theft Auto" video game.
    He is now in custody pending further investigations and a trial, faces
death by lethal injection if found guilty of robbing and killing a 54-year-old
taxi driver with a knife.
    The suspect whose name is Polwat Chinno with blood on his face and
shirt told police that he did not mean to kill the driver, whom he had chosen
as a possible victim because of his age, after bypassing two others with
younger drivers, but the victim fought back and was stabbed several times to
death. 
    He was arrested by police on the night of Saturday (August 2) trying to
steer a cab backwards out of a Bangkok street with the severely wounded driver
in the back seat. He did not know how to drive.
    Police said the youth, an obsessive player of the video game, showed no
sign of mental problems during questioning and had confessed to committing the
crime explicitly because of the game.
    The suspect said he was to find out if it was easy to rob a taxi as it
was in the game he played everyday, Chief investigator Veeravit Pipattanasak
told Reuters.
    His parents described him as polite and diligent but shocked when
police called to inform that their son committed a crime by killing a taxi
driver.
    The game allows people to play in a criminal role as missions to be
accomplished, by beatings, carjackings, drive-by shootings, drunk driving,
prostitution and so on.
    A senior official at Thailand's Culture Ministry said the murder was a
wakeup call for authorities to tackle the issue of violence video games, and
urged parents to pay closer attention to what their children played. 
    The ministry has been pushing for tougher regulation of video games
such as Grand Theft Auto, including the imposition of a rating system on sales
and restriction of hours that youngsters can play the games in public
arcades.
    A multi-million dollar lawsuit was filed in Alabama against the makers
and marketers of Grand Theft Auto in 2005, claiming that months of playing the
game led a teenager to kill two police officers and a 911 dispatcher.
    The blockbuster Grand Theft Auto games are published by Nasdaq-listed
Take-Two Interactive Software.