Kotaku
Wow, this is pretty shocking.
Andrew Rosenblum, the founder and co-host of GameLife, has been arrested for allegedly threatening to go on a Virginia Tech-like shooting spree at a Boston-area college.
Rosenblum, who was taking classes at the Boston University, instant messaged his ex-girlfriend shortly after 32 people were killed at Virginia Tech, saying he was going to kill her, according to the Boston Herald.
"(I)'m gonna (expletive) bring a gun to your school and kill you and K (another female student) and everybody you love. It's gonna be VT all over again," 20-year-old Andrew Rosenblum allegedly wrote in an e-mail to the victim just hours after 32 people were gunned at Virginia Tech. "Seriously I'm just that demented," Rosenblum wrote, according to a BPD report. He ended the message with a threat to commit homicide and suicide: "killing people can change people's lives forever. (T)he best is in the end when I pull the trigger on myself, too."
Rosenblum was picked up by police at his parents house Tuesday and taken to a local hospital for observation. Police were expecting to arrest him today for threatening to do bodily harm.
The 19-year-old girl told police she went on three dates with Rosenblum and then broke up with him. She said he then started to harass her.
Police called the instant message threats "very serious" and said the case remained under investigation.
Last year Rosenblum's GameLife show was picked up by MTV's broadband video channel Overdrive. None of the hosts for the show returned emails seeking comments Wednesday afternoon.
Update: I just heard back from Melissa, one of the show's hosts:
I only recently learned of this. Anyone who knows Andrew knows he would never do anything violent. This was clearly a cry for attention that came from a very dark and lonely place inside of Andrew. It seems the media in general is already treating this as some hot topic when, in reality, it is a small story about a sad and confused guy who needs to get some help. He is now getting that help.
Cops pick up BU student over 'VT' Web threat [Boston Herald]
Comments
Dear world:
On behalf of most gamers, I'd like to state that we're not like this frigging psychopath.
Thank you.
Me.
(PS. I still have pokemons in my sock.)
What the hell?
OH thank you god, I hate Game life. Book him Dano!
Holy Shit.. What the fuck? This is that nerdy weird guy on Gamelife? Man..
What in Hell's Domain?
Yeah, videogames don't cause people to-- ohsnap.
I am so very curious how Jackie T is going to take this one.
Looking at that picture, actually, it's NOT that shocking.
This is JUST what gaming needs in terms of overall public perception and for the purpose of deconstructing the 'homicidal gamers' stigma, yessirree. Christ.
Yup, definitely really that stupid. Well, that's one mystery solved. Thanks Kotaku!
So young, so nerdy, so FULL OF RAGE!
What the (expletive) (expletive)!? More (expletive) morons to get all of these (expletive) shootings to be blamed on (expletive) video games.
People really (expletive) me off.
What in the hell? God damn why do psychopaths have to keep adding fuel to the "video-games create maniacs" fire?
Good, this moron gets what he deserves.
P.S: GameLife sucks.
Hardly shocking...
yeah well it seems that a guy with those looks would try to hang/cling on to somebody, but that's taking it to far. It's sad though. THis will make people think of gamers somewhat like this. I hope it doesn't. Jackass Dumbson will be on this like shit on flies i imagine.
What the hell? A girl went out with that guy? Three times?
Lemme also guess: this girl was probably at least one order of magnitude out of his league and went out with him due to his pseudo-celebrity status or on a whim to do something, like, SO weird, and his socially hapless nature didn't do anything to keep this 'too good to be true' scenario alive longer than three dates. (That hardly constitutes a boyfriend/girlfriend scenario.) He probably didn't even get 'manual relief' out of it before it was all over...all over, that is, except in his mind.
And even if she was a perfect match for him, I'll be he was unbearable even as a dinner date.
@Kuraudo:
LMAO
Wow.
I have to say I'm not all that surprised. I've known people like this. Check out his profile on GameLife. His interests include "Watching TV, Surfing the Internet" and playing video games. Reality for this guy is whatever's beamed to the nearest TV screen/monitor.
Pitiful.
And echoing Protofunk's sentiment, we're not all psychos, people of the world!
This is what years of ridicule get you. Seriously, that boy was the laughing stock of the internet, it's no wonder he ended up messed up. Wow.
That's what he gets for giving New Super Mario Bros. a crumby review.
Wow. Pathetic much?
Say it with me people...NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERD.
God damn it. More fuel on the fire. VT was a terrible tragedy and I hate the fact that one of the first things I think of after these events is "I hope they don't blame gaming," but we have to step up and defend our hobby, people.
Never watched GameLife, but I hope they don't have an answerphone, you can imagine some of the messages people will leave in parody!
This is just plain stupid. Then again, when situations like the VT shootings occur, an unavoidable negative effect of all the coverage is that it can give other mentally unstable people ideas. All some people need is to see another person do something to give them the motivation to do likewise. Thankfully due to the current heightened awareness, this was able to be stopped before anything happened.
Wow.
Just wow.
The biggest insult will come when he gets to prison and no one wants to (expletive) him there either. Imagine his shock when he discovers that "the hole" doesn't warmp him to another level.
@nitro734:
He's probably masturbating furiously right now to this news.
You know what is sad, you don't know if the guy was serious or just misguided by current events. The trauma of the arrest might just solidify his psych damage. (20 sided die roll)
Though I have sympathy for these individuals, I feel bad for the families of the victims. And may I add that more lives were lost in a single suicide bomber attack in Bagdad last month, then all the domestic school shootings in the US combined to date. Sad.
ahem *warp* not warmp. Although he might imagine that it would make that sound...
I for one don't see this as a gamer issue i see it as a female issue. People just can't seem to handle a break up or obssessing over a woman. I think this is a huge issue for gamer geeks that can't communicate with women.
first, gamers are killers.
now, gamers are crazy killers?!?!
what do i have to do to waggle myself from these sterotypes?!?!
@theCornerinvasion:
Indeed. I seem to recall the D.C. sniper touching off at least two or three other copycats around the country in his short-term wake. I'm sure LE around the country are on their toes, drinking that extra-strong joe, just anticipating the worst. This doesn't help in that arena, either.
Also, I never watched Gamelife (thank God!), but after doing some Googlin', I can safely say that the attached yearbook photo is quite the deceiving 'glamor shot'. No, really.
Founder of Gamelife? Oh, this will not do good things for public perception of the gaming community...
Great, so the Washington Post lets gamers off the hook and this bozo puts them right back on. Douche.
I never could understand why gamelife got anywhere... That guy is just twitchy star wars kid.
people who game are usually the losers who don't dare to do shit. They only make threats, so yes.. you could say this guy's a real gamer.
Greeeat here we go again...another fucking excuse for morons to tie random acts of threat and violence to video games.
Thanks Andrew, you jerkoff.
Lovely... On the bright side, this is going to be very interesting when he gets to prison.
Burly Inmate: I killed a man for stealing my dog. What are you in here for?
Andrew Rosenblum: I angrily threatened a girl who went out with me a few times.
Burly Inmate: Wait, I think I heard about that. You're the gamer, right?
Andrew Rosenblum: Not just a gamer, but I'm the proud founder of GameLife!
A short while later...
Andrew Rosenblum: Oh noes! Nonconsensual intimacy!
This guy is like William Hung but without the "fortune" side of "fame and fortune". I'm sure if William got all the attention he got but without any of the money, he would be pretty close to doing the same thing.
Looks like a stud, I need to get him to a keg party \m/
I can only hope that people make the "MTV = violence" irrational connection instead of the the more obvious one. Nothing would please me more.
How many fucking college students or people in general between the ages of 0 and 30 play videogames. A whole hell of a lot. The averages say that someone of them will be crazy. The only way it's more closely related would be if violent videogames atract these people. I believe they can, but just like anything else. If it wasn't videogames they would be watching violent movies or killing bunnies.
Well, he certainly turned a gun on his career. You know, at any other time I might be inclined to pass this off as an aberration. But mere hours after a killing spree (and referencing said killing spree in his communication) ... It's pretty unforgivable.
Maximum penalty.
This is just one of those stories that is not good news for anybody... scary for the victim, bad news for gamelife and his colleagues, more bad PR for games, and pretty distressing I should imagine to the guy himself (assuming he's cooled down) and his friends and family.
Man, what a fun week for news.
size does matter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj7KreoB2YM
Great. Now Jack Thompson has more fuel for his moronic fire of rage.
Shit, they should have arrested and hospitalized him for founding GameLife.
Goddamit, what a fucking asshole!
Way to justify douche bags like Jack Thomson's position...
Honestly, I don't know if he was serious about his threats or making a really horrible joke, but I hope he gets what he deserves for such a stupid decision...
Melissa's ridiculous response is the exact same attitude that let the Viginia Tech incident happen. Teacher's were repeatedly filing complaints and warnings about the guy based on his writings but nothing ever happened because thay had the same attitude towards him as she does to this freaking psycho.
Things are not looking good for us as a community, gamers.
The cards are falling into place for a major backlash against us.
...thanks a lot, Rosenblum. You didn't just make an idiot of yourself, you as good as sold us all out to the media.
Joking or not, how fucking dumb can you be?? Could his timing be any worse? Had he done this two weeks ago, it certainly would not have gotten exploited like it has.
Fuckhead JT is going to have a field day with this.
"Andrew Rosenblum's rage was fueled by his love of GTA Liberty City Stories."
- Jack Thompson
School Shootings Expert
Magic Pink is correct. That's not the kind of response we really need right now. I'd certainly hope that yesterday is a wake-up call to cut this stuff off before it gets rolling, rather than continue on with this asinine "it's just talk/nothing would ever happen" attitude.
I agree with Magic Pink, though it's tricky. Lots of weird people out there, 99.9% of even the weirdos aren't going to kill anyone. We obviously can't throw people in jail for being weird. However, you can and should throw someone out of a university if they demontrate a clear threat to other students and teachers.
That said, Melissa's response was kind of ridiculous. She probably knows him well, but I'd be pretty angry if I were the recipient of his vile message, or that girl's parents.