Kim Crawford has been charged with killing her young son after the boy broke a television while playing with his Nintendo Wii.
Prosecutors allege that Crawford went into a rage following the TV’s destruction, and that the woman admits to “hitting the boy hard in the back and stomach.”
By the time police arrived at the Crawford home, young Jamar Johnson was unconscious and had stopped breathing. An autopsy confirmed that the child suffered “internal abdominal injuries.”
It’s interesting to note that Crawford’s attorney is not arguing for the woman’s innocence. While she acknowledges that Crawford attacked her son, she claims that the New York City resident had no intention of killing the child.
Currently Crawford is being held without bond in the Bronx. Presumably, a sentencing hearing is imminent.
Attentive gamers will recall that this “Wii breaks TV” phenomenon is far from novel. A cursory Google search for Wiimote-damaged HDTVs brings up thousands of examples of people flailing wildly and accidentally launching Nintendo’s motion-activated controller through the screen of their expensive media box.
That said, I do believe this is the most tragic incident to spring from the console’s existence. I refuse to condemn the woman until the courts are done with her, but of all the reasons to beat your child to death — and there really aren’t any good ones — this has to place pretty high on the list of “most despicable.”
