34-year-old Jaquana Butler of Atlanta, Georgia is accused of shooting her 17-year-old son during an argument over a video game console. Unfortunately, this is not the first time that someone has been hurt in a dispute over a video game console.
Just last month, two teenage boys were in an argument over a PS4 console that saw one of the boys fire a gun and hit a 60-year-old woman in the leg. In other cases, individuals have lost their lives while attempting to buy or sell video game consoles to people met through online marketplaces. It’s usually strangers inflicting this violence on each other, which makes this latest incident especially disturbing.
According to various news reports on the incident, Butler and her 17-year-old son were in some kind of argument over a video game console. The specific console was not revealed by authorities, and it’s also unclear what the nature of the argument was. Regardless, Butler is accused of shooting her son multiple times. Her son is currently being treated at Grady Memorial Hospital, while Butler has been “charged with aggravated assault, reckless conduct, and cruelty to children” and is being held at Fulton County Jail.
Butler reportedly has an extensive criminal history that includes previous arrests and charges. According to a report by the Daily Mail, Butler was previously “found guilty of second-degree child cruelty, child cruelty by causing excessive physical or mental pain, and battery family violence” that saw her sentenced to six years of probation. The most recent run-in with law enforcement, prior to this incident where she allegedly shot her son multiple times in an argument over a video game console, happened this past April when Butler was charged with simple battery.
As previously mentioned, this is not the first time that someone has been seriously hurt in a dispute over a video game console. Back in 2021, a teenager in Texas was shot while trying to sell their PlayStation 5 console. This was at a time when PS5 consoles were exceedingly rare, thanks to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, scalpers, and other issues. In that situation, the buyer was allegedly trying to rob the teenager, but ended up fleeing the scene after shooting them without taking the device. Similar context for the Butler incident and why she allegedly shot her 17-year-old son over a video game console has not been provided at the time of this writing.
Source: Daily Mail, Fox 5 Atlanta, Fulton County, WSB-TV
Photo by Scott Rodgerson on Unsplash
