Skip to main content

Video Game Stabbing: 2 Stabbed After Smack Talk

By Cynthia Hsu, Esq. on May 27, 2011 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Video game smack talk: it can lead to real bloodshed.

Matthew DeJesus, 24, was charged with first-degree reckless injury and first-degree reckless endangerment for stabbing two men  in his apartment. The video game stabbing occurred when their smack-talking became heated.

The two victims had been hanging out at DeJesus' apartment when the video game playing became competitive. First, it escalated into a fist fight, reports the Wisconsin State Journal.

Then as one of the victims retreated into the kitchen saying it was time to leave - DeJesus allegedly stabbed him in the left thigh.

When another man went to help the first victim, DeJesus stabbed him in the buttocks area, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. The same victim was then stabbed in the back. Afterwards, he was able to wrestle the knife out of DeJesus' hands.

DeJesus' defense of his smack-talking spurred stabbing? That he was doing so in defense. According to DeJesus' attorney, he had stabbed the first victim because the first victim was "attacking" some other person in his house, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

In many cases, self-defense will be a viable defense option. If you are under fear that your life is in great danger, you may invoke the right of self-defense. But, mere insults - like some smack talking in a video game - can't invoke self-defense.

Furthermore, the right to self-defense also expands to the right to defend others.

But, whatever force you use in self-defense or defense of others needs to be timely and proportional to whatever threat you faced. If someone punches you, you cannot defend yourself by shooting him. And, if someone tries to shoot you - you can't wait a week, then come back with a gun and try to shoot him back.

For DeJesus, the video game smack talk certainly seemed to spiral out of control. In most situations, video game stabbing remains in game, and the bloodshed usually does not spill out into the real world.

Related Resources:

Copied to clipboard