Kid dies while his friends watch

[WillowIX]

One hour after this child pumps himself full of drugs they start thinking about calling for help. And then they tell him not to call cause the child can get arrested? I can´t believe it!

Even if he did contemplate suicide I find this horrible, stupid and senseless. But according to the log he did call a "friend" and said "he will report this".

[Attalus]

Well, Willow, he was of age. But, you are correct, he was acting childishly. Interestingly, they seemed to think it would be worse to serve a short jail term than to possibly die. It's no great stretch to imagine they were, er, impaired a bit themselves.

[WillowIX]

Originally posted by Attalus: Well, Willow, he was of age. But, you are correct, he was acting childishly. Interestingly, they seemed to think it would be worse to serve a short jail term than to possibly die. It's no great stretch to imagine they were, er, impaired a bit themselves.

Yes he was of age, but pulling this stunt on a webcam in front of who knows how old people isn´t mature in my book. I hope the parents don´t see that chat log.

[Larry_OHF]

A friend of mine sent me the following e-mail.

I found some more information on this guy, Brandon Vedas (aka “Ripper”), and the story surrounding the event, which took place on Tuesday, January 12 from 04:06-04:49 (possibly longer, depending on where you *think* he may have passed to the great beyond – if you’re looking at the logs…). It happened in Phoenix, AZ, and if you read the reports, you’ll see that the family was rather taken aback – they were so “separate, yet together” that they didn’t know he was deceased until 13:00 the following day. I’ll include everything I have on the matter – it may serve you more information than the rumor mills will. Still, after reading the actual logs (something these guys never posted), I know more about the event than the papers are willing to release. As for investigation – and punishing those that were on-line with him that night, well – nobody has to worry about a thing. Quoting from the Arizona Republic: Phoenix police are not investigating anyone in Brandon's death. "This is not a criminal matter," Phoenix police Sgt. Randy Force said. "This is a 21-year-old under no coercion or duress. He may have been on the Internet, and people may have been cheering him on. But what he did, he did of his own free will. "The people watching don't know what he's taking, how much he's taking, what the affect will be, or whether it is deadly. . . . How do they know its not just candy he's popping and putting on an act for his friends?" The rumor mills (outside “official” writ) declared that “Ripper” was anywhere from 12 to 21. It turns out that he was 21. I find it disturbing that the event took place – even worse that the apparent “friends” that were logged in and discussing the event never took it seriously until he lost control – and by then it would appear it was far too late. Incidentally – the papers got quite a few things wrong – feel free to try and note them all – but that’s because the reporters don’t know how to read “Leet-speak”, and have no idea what they were seeing. It painted a more-than-graphic picture for me. Special Note: One of the papers mentioned a user “PNutBot” – as if it were human. Go back to the logs, and look really closely at the patterns, and you’ll learn something that *no* reporter outside the cyberworld will ever learn: “PNutBot” was not a person at all. It was REALLY a bot program – a script (or set of scripts) set up to “hold a channel open” in a chat environment. Watch the text that scrolls from it, in response to what others type: it’s a sort of “knee-jerk” reaction – there is no real “intelligence” there, it is merely a “place holder” for a chat room, to keep it from being de-activated, while the people who “meet” there are busy with their lives *outside* of cyberspace… …you’ve no doubt read the logs, just look at them again, you’ll see where people type “ripper” to call out to him, and PNutBot responds (*every* time!) with “Ripper is a gangster!” – and most of it’s dialog is meaningless in context with everything else that’s being said/typed/displayed. No, a “bot” is a place-holder, designed to confuse the management programs at a chat-room facility, so the chat room can remain open even when nobody is there. But the press doesn’t know that, do they? Source Material: The Arizona Republic http://www.arizonarepublic.com/arizo...05webfolo.html http://www.arizonarepublic.com/news/...boverdose.html The Herald Sun http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/com...55E401,00.html The New York Daily News http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...7p-52905c.html The Statesman http://www.thestatesman.net/page.new...ess=1&id=10836 Morons.Org http://web.morons.org/article.jsp?sectionid=1&id=2812 The Actual Logs http://pages.sbcglobal.net/oea/logs.html …well, now that we know who/what/when/where (I figure there is no “why”), we can rest easy that this is *not* a net hoax. I hope we bring our children up better than this – that’s all I can say…

[Oblivion437]

Definite darwin award contender. We're better off without him. I honestly think a moron who takes enough drugs to numb a Hiyena, and then, deciding that wasn't enough, decided to go even further, and kill himself, deserved what he got. I have more sympathy for people who actually had a bad life.

[Animal]

Originally posted by Oblivion437: Definite darwin award contender. We're better off without him. I honestly think a moron who takes enough drugs to numb a Hiyena, and then, deciding that wasn't enough, decided to go even further, and kill himself, deserved what he got. I have more sympathy for people who actually had a bad life.

Did you read any of this thread at all?
This guy had an addiction problem, plain and simple, and needed help. Unfortunately either his family and friends didn't know he had a problem, or just didn't care. After the first dose, he probably lost all common sense and rational thinking when the drugs took control and had no idea what he was doing. To say he deserved what he got, is a childish point of view, showing no understanding about the problems of addiction.
I was addicted to perscription medication quite some time back now, not to this extent mind you, but I know what it's like to be addicted. I was lucky enough to have some people who loved me, pull me out of it.
Perhaps the one good thing in all of this is those that sat and watched may re-evaluate their lives and choose to say "NO."
Oblivion437, this is why he died. Not because he took a lethal overdose, but because he didn't have enough people that cared about him to recognize the addiction and get him the help he required. I've said it once, and I'll say it again:

Addiction, of any kind, is an illness and needs to be treated as such. To say that he "deserved what he got" because he had an illness ensures that this type of thing will continue to happen.

[SecretMaster]

Absolutely horrible.

[Night Stalker]

Actually it's deeper than addiction. He died because he no longer wanted to live. He may not have wanted to die, but he no longer wanted to live. He was escaping. He spent his life trying to escape it. He finaly did.

It is unfortunate that his life ended before he found new will for it, but I don't mourn his death. He got what he wanted. I do feel sorry for his parents, for they have to deal with the issues that he left behind. People who want to live assume that everyone must feel that way and that "life" is sacred. Some don't want to live, and others take that further by wanting to die. There is only one guarantee to life and that is death. It's just the living don't deal to well with that.

I wanted to say more, but I'm not sure what .... maybe I'll think of it later ....

[Ladyzekke]

Reading that transcript was horrible. Ack in some ways I wish I hadn't read that. I read the story about what happened, but it is different when you read the actual transcript.

I think I read the thing and saw it in a different perspective than others, and my perspective could be wrong, any of ours can, as we never knew Ripper-Brandon. I saw a guy who didn't care about himself or his life, a guy who was depressed and suffering and lonely. I think his "showing off" when he first took those pills was in his own way a cry for attention and help. I think he knew if he posted "I am going to kill myself" he would get a bunch of "■■■■■! Poosy!" etc. etc. type responses. So instead he played it "cool" and calm but still showed what he was doing, even used a webcam so everyone could see him sucking down those pills. He had to know at his age (21) that he was taking a deadly dose. I think if someone had really cared and tried to call him and talk to him, it might have made a difference, but of course that is a big "might." Unfortunately the only guy he got to talk to on the phone was Smoke2K, who knows what that idiot said to him. It DID seem that in the end he actually stopped joking around and was really concerned, I don't blame him, I think he had no idea how serious things were, who knows how old Smoke2K is as well. I really hope that Smoke2K was affected in a big way by what happened to Ripper, and he will think twice next time *he* tries to get high on pills, at least then something good came out of the whole thing.

One thing I also want to say, is people who do drugs are not necessarily bad people, and certainly do not "deserve to die." Most people who get into drugs are trying to just feel happy in a world that they are unhappy in, they just don't realize the consequences and dangers that drugs in the end will give them. Just because some of you haven't done any drugs before doesn't make you a better person than those that have (and I'm not saying anyone said that btw). I've known some incredible people who had weaknesses, whether it be gamblng, drugs, or booze, heck even the Internet has its own addictive qualities. None of us are perfect. We shouldn't condemn and hate people addicted to drugs, we should care, and try to help them get out of it.

[Seraph]

Definite darwin award contender.

Don't darwin awards have to be creative?