Man arrested after flying to Florida to attack rival with hammer over online game feud
Facebook: Nassau County SheriffA New Jersey man was arrested after flying to Florida in the middle of the night to attack his rival with a hammer over a feud in an online game.
On June 24, 2024, Sherrif Bill Lepper from Nassau County, Florida, revealed that a man was arrested for attempted murder and burglary.
Lepper told reporters that the attacker allegedly got angry at the victim while playing the decade-old online multiplayer RPG game ArcheAge, and he hopped on a plane to visit the sunshine state.
After arriving, the attacker allegedly stopped at an Ace Hardware to pick up a hammer and a flashlight before sneaking into the victims house.
“The victim’s stepfather reported being awakened by screams for help,” said the sheriff. “When he went to see what was going on he found his stepson on the ground struggling with the attacker, who was in possession of a hammer.”
The Sheriff added that when the attacker was asked why he did what he did, the suspect said that the victim was a “bad person online.”
Lepper said that the victim suffered from severe but non life-threatening injuries from the attack.
The details of the suspect’s charges are unknown, but according to Florida-based criminal lawyers Meltzer & Bell, first-degree attempted murder includes a minimum of 25 years in prison while second-degree attempted murder includes a minimum of just 15 years.
The news of this incident comes just weeks after a Korean YouTuber was stabbed to death, allegedly by his rival, while streaming outside of a courthouse in Busan, South Korea. The suspect was arrested two hours later, and confirmed in a post on his YouTube channel that he had been arrested.
That wasn’t the first time someone had been attacked during an IRL brodcast, either. Back in May 2023, a Chinese streamer’s hand was cut off after a man began attacking him with a sword.