Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
He Murdered Someone Over a Video Game - The Daniel Petric story
Sat, 26 Apr 2025
Daniel Petric, a 16-year-old from Wellington, Ohio, committed a tragic crime in 2007 that drew national attention. After his father, a Pentecostal minister, confiscated his copy of the video game Halo 3, Daniel retrieved the game and then he then shot both of his parents.
Chapter 1: Has anyone ever died because of a video game?
Has anyone ever died because of a video game? Actually, yes. This kid unalives someone because of Halo 3. Here's what happened. Now the kid's name is Daniel, and Daniel's 15, living in Ohio, and he's a normal high school kid, and he loves playing football. It's a big part of his life. But one day in 2006, his whole world changes because he goes on a snowboarding trip with his friends.
Chapter 2: What happened to Daniel before the tragedy?
And so he's out, and he's up on the mountains, snowboarding, goofing around, and suddenly, boom, he crashes hard, and he injures his spine pretty bad. In fact, it's so severe, any further damage could potentially paralyze him. So he can't run, he can't play sports anymore, including football, which is a huge deal to him.
Chapter 3: How did Daniel's injury affect his life and interests?
I mean, he's been playing football since he was younger and suddenly he has to stop? Now what's he gonna do? But then it gets even worse because Daniel contracts a staph infection. So for a while, he's super sick and he can't really move much at all.
And so he's bedridden, and he has to be home most of the time, and he can't go to high school anymore until he fully recovers, so I guess he starts getting homeschooled, and this goes on for around a year. And during this year, he has to find a way to pass the time.
Chapter 4: How did Daniel discover the video game Halo?
And after a while, I guess his parents start letting him leave the house to go hang out at his friend's house, and it's there that he experiences something he's never experienced before. A video game called Halo. Now, Daniel has played games before, mostly with his dad. They would play a lot of, like, Madden, because, you know, he loves football.
But he's never played anything like Halo before, which, if you've never played, it's a first-person shooter where you, like, run around blowing up aliens. And sure, it's a bit violent, but whatever. It's fun. And instantly, Daniel loves this game, and he wants to play it all the time. In fact, over time, he starts getting obsessed with it. He plays it for hours at a time.
Chapter 5: Why did Daniel become obsessed with Halo 3?
Sometimes he'll play it up to 18 hours in a day, only stopping to like eat some cereal or go to the bathroom. Now, at this part of the story, it isn't actually clear if he's still playing it at his friend's house or if he's now playing it at home or both. But it is clear that now Bro has a gaming problem. It is all he thinks about. He is addicted.
Now at some point, I guess, he brings the game up to his parents. And his parents, oh, they are not happy. See, Daniel's mom and dad, who we'll just call mom and dad, mom and dad are super religious. In fact, dad is the pastor at a local church. So they don't want their kid playing violent video games. Jesus would never. And so they tell him no. No violent shooting games are allowed in this house.
Chapter 6: How did Daniel's parents react to his gaming obsession?
And this pisses Daniel off. I mean, they just don't understand how much he likes this game. He doesn't have to play it at his friends' houses. Now what's he gonna do? And so at this point, it's 2007, and he is 16 years old now. And around this time, kaboom, Halo 3 comes out. And Daniel, of course, he wants to play it so bad, but he doesn't want to disobey his parents.
So finally, one night, he's all like, all this, and he goes and he gets $70 and he sneaks out his bedroom window and he heads over to the store and he buys this game. I guess he plans on playing it at home when his parents aren't paying attention. I don't know. Well, that same night, he gets back home and he sneaks back into his room through the window. And suddenly, bam, his mom catches him.
Chapter 7: What caused the conflict over the Halo 3 game?
And she sees that he's got a new game in his hand and that it's Halo 3, a violent game he's not supposed to have. And she's mad at him. And I guess she goes and tells dad. And now dad gets involved and he's all pissed off too. And they snatch that game away from him. And dad takes it and he hides it in a lockbox in the closet, which is like, I guess, a little safe.
And he locks it up and he puts the key on his personal key ring with his car keys. Now at this point, Daniel could let all this slide. Maybe forget about the game or whatever, but that's not what he does. He's addicted and he is not going to let this go. So for the next few weeks, tension in the house is building and building. And one night, Daniel has finally had enough.
He really wants to play that game. And Dad is still like, nah. And things get heated, and they get into an argument. And finally, Dad gives him an ultimatum. You can either give up the violent video games, or you can get the hell out. And Daniel's like, fine, I'll leave. And he does. He leaves and he goes to stay over at his friend's house. And that weekend is everything Daniel could ever want.
I guess his friend's parents don't really care what the boys do and they end up playing Halo 16 to 18 hours a day all weekend long and nothing is stopping them. This is great. So it seems like maybe this will be Daniel's life from here on out and he's gonna be happy. Until... Apparently Daniel is still upset that his parents took his copy of Halo 3 and he just can't seem to let it go.
So he comes up with an insane plan to get his game back and punish his parents for taking it. First, he goes back home. And I don't know if he made up with his parents or if they worked it out, but whatever. He's back in his house. Then he waits for his dad to leave his keys on the counter, just like he does every night after work.
And he low-key snatches those keys and he gets the key to the lockbox. Then he goes to the closet, opens the box, and grabs his game. But that's not the only thing he grabs. Dad also keeps a nine millimeter locked in that box. So Daniel grabs it too. Meanwhile, mom and dad are in the living room. They're sitting on the couch because they're about to watch a baseball game.
So Daniel enters the room and he asks them to close their eyes because he has a surprise for them. And they're like, oh, cool, a surprise? This will be fun. And as soon as they close their eyes, Daniel pulls out that 9mm, and he points it at his dad. And suddenly, blam, he shoots his dad in the face. And as mom notices and opens her eyes, blam, blam, blam, he shoots her too. And she's unalived.
Then, while dad is on the floor, Daniel starts trying to put the pew-pew in his hand. Because I guess he's gonna try to make it look like dad shot mom. But then, suddenly, ding-dong, someone rings the doorbell. So Daniel stops what he's doing and he answers it. And it's his sister and her husband. And they're there because they're supposed to watch the baseball game with mom and dad.
So Daniel, he starts freaking out. freaking out at them and he's like, no, don't come in. And he starts telling them that mom and dad are in some kind of big argument and that they don't really need to come in because it's just chaos. Here's the thing though. Dad was shot in the face, but somehow he actually survives.
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