That is seriously fucked up.

Something like this has happened before.

I bet this is the result of 4chan.

I TOLD U I WUZ HARDCORE

This is tragic on so many levels, yet as sure as night follows day expect that this thread will be filled with wise-ass, cynical, unfunny "jokes" from pathetic assholes who think that sociopathic cruelty (at least in the safety of an anonymous Internet forum) makes them "hip."

Nope, no jokes. Humanity hit a new low with this one.

Tragic, yes. Shocking, no. Funny? Not at all. Interesting? Nope.

Of all the things you can do in front of a camera when you are, in fact, going to kill yourself...you just take a bunch of pills and slam down in bed? I bet he thought the cops or an ambulance would get there in time to relieve him. Doesn't strike that he actually wanted to die. Sounds more like a poorly crafted cry-for-help.

whats so tragic? at least he can have an open casket.

If you're going to do it live on the internet, at least hang yourself or something.

Copycats to come.

This is actually a fairly close retread of the Brandon Vedas story from 2003 (referenced by 2 and 3 above.) http://www.brandonvedas.com/internet.htm… Most people who spend much time immersed in the social culture of the internet are more than familiar with people who spend most of their time demanding to be talked down from their suicidal ideation. This is, QED, often quite a bit less helpful than actually getting therapy or professional help.

Coming soon to episodes of L&O, L&O:CI, CSI, CSI:Miami, CSI:NY, The Mentalist, and Ghost Whisperer.

sad

most attemped suicide is a cry for help in cases like this

ALWAYS take them seriously

@6
My thoughts exactly. I doubt he wanted to kill himself... he wanted people to listen to him, take him seriously, and feel sorry for him.

Ugh. You know what? While it is obvious that you want to slap every single sick individual for watching this- I also want to kick the shit out of that kid (were he still alive to feel it). What a selfish, self-absorbed, wrong-headed thing to do.

Did he at least offer an address or phone number or anything to the people watching the live stream? Hell, I'm actually quite certain there must have been people watching who WANTED to help, but had no idea where this kid lived. Unless, of course, he said it right before taking the pills.

Then they all are sick, horrible fucks every last one of them. And this kid was an asshole. Literally no one associated with this incident, save the cops who turned off the camera, can be seen as anything but cruel and insanely stupid. Including the idiot who took the pills.

that's why i'll commit suicide right in public, so no hours of waiting

This is really fucking sad.

But I have to say I'm a bit surprised it doesn't happen more often. I mean, suicides happen every day. And they are often a cry for help. And the technical requirements to do this live on the internet are low. Most laptops these days have a built-in webcam. It would be super easy for anyone inclined to do this. I expect we'll see this more often in the future... sadly.

Sad sad sad. No snark here.

#8, stile of stileproject.com (NSFW) actually did a really decent suicide fake in 1999. He was on a webcam with 5 or 10 minute interval, pretending to take pills and methadone/alcohol/etc, then staged a neck down photo of him hanging from his ceiling, which then remained as the most recent webcam shot.

He actually had his arms up through his shirt's neck opening, hanging from his rafter, with rolled up towels in his sleeves and hands that were hastily photoshopped on. He might have done that shot before, but the arms/hands looked really good. His last blog post said "FIN" and the page was quiet until 4 days later someone discovered the Photoshop headers differed from the other webcam shots and he finally resurfaced on IRC.

Fun stuff.

This link from mashable gives a lot more context.

http://mashable.com/2008/11/20/19-year-o…

Despite some appalling behavior, I don't think this kid was cyber-bullied or driven to suicide because of jerky forum users. And no, he sure as hell didn't give out his address - someone had to figure out where he lived and contact the authorities.

very mixed feelings about this having tried to OD myself at 17 years old, wow, almost 25 years ago now -- I was scared I was gay

I wasn't live on the internet and only called a friend to take me to the hospital when it took too long (I waited at least 6 hours after taking an entire bottle of 100 aspirin) and I started worrying that it could turn out to be really agonizing instead of the peaceful, painfree drift off to noplace I'd envisioned (also I was a real puss about the intense discomfort)

the subsequent stomach pumping, ambulance ride, intensive care and locked mental health ward stay, not to mention the humiliation that high school faculty knew, the shame and guilt at what it did to my family and on and on really really sucked

my attempt wasn't a conscious cry for help, or at least not the help I got, though I guess it was the desperate move of someone who was completely miserable - on the other hand, if there was a magic button I could press to retroactively and instantly wipe myself out of existence, I would have jammed that thing down without hesitation and still would -- no need for cheerleaders, the existential horror of life is more than enough

"This is the story of the first person to be killed because of low ratings."

Seriously, the guy was asking for it. History has proven that the human race, especially when anonymous, have a fascination with death, especially unnatural ones. From the latest car accident on 520 to the video series Faces of Death to public beheadings to Roman lion chow time...the public have always been fascinated by death and violence. And, woe be it to the person who expects the human being to stop it.

The real asshole in the story is the kid who killed himself. Anybody who attempts suicide (especially to fail at it) is doing an incredibly misguided selfish assholish thing. Especially if he expected somebody whom he has never met in person to come to his rescue.

very mixed feelings about this having tried to OD myself at 17 years old, wow, almost 25 years ago now -- I was scared I was gay

I wasn't live on the internet and only called a friend to take me to the hospital when it took too long (I waited at least 6 hours after taking an entire bottle of 100 aspirin) and I started worrying that it could turn out to be really agonizing instead of the peaceful, painfree drift off to noplace I'd envisioned (also I was a real puss about the intense discomfort)

the subsequent stomach pumping, ambulance ride, intensive care and locked mental health ward stay, not to mention the humiliation that high school faculty knew, the shame and guilt at what it did to my family and on and on really really sucked

my attempt wasn't a conscious cry for help, or at least not the help I got, though I guess it was the desperate move of someone who was completely miserable - on the other hand, if there was a magic button I could press to retroactively and instantly wipe myself out of existence, I would have jammed that thing down without hesitation and still would -- no need for cheerleaders, the existential horror of life is more than enough

sorry for the double post

What role did MDMA play in his mental health?

In the light of all this, can we at least pledge a moratorium on blaming suicides for committing suicide? Surely this kid was fucked up, depressed, insane--and that's his fault? That's somehow "selfish"? What planet are you people living on?

I'm looking at you Jonny Liverwurst.

I'd rather watch the puppies.

And you, Misanthrope.

@22 I was that sad kid too, with a very similar story.

It's better now that I'm older and have some perspective, but that stuff is hard to put behind you sometimes. Hang in there.

That being said, if I were to commit suicide in public, it would be definitely suicide by cop at the Pike Place Market, dressed in something amazing.

Not that I've thought about it or anything.

Terrible! The desensitized LiveLeak (Ogrish) generation of playing the most grotesquely violent video games before many can even drive a car has finally reached its ultimate low. If this story gets picked up I expect it to be a huge deal and incite all kinds of cries for censorship, etc. One of the designers of those dark violent games for Capcom committed suicide in a famous YouTube video in the documentary The Bridge after he supposedly got laid off.

So sad.

He probably just wanted someone to touch him/hug him without judgment.

So long as it wasn't on the Aurora Bridge ...

What isn't on the net? I can't think of anything.

@ Shock

I'm living on the planet of personal responsibility. When you come down from your hippy utopia into the real world, let me know.

I'm not defending the tone or the content of above posts, but:

Suicide is selfish. Saying so is not blaming the victim (calling the victim an asshole, OTOH...). Killing oneself will hurt ones friends and family in direct proportion to their goodwill towards the victim, and the potential suicidee knows this. I think that living, when one perceives death to be in ones best interest, would be a kind and selfless act. And conversely, choosing to die, knowing how it will hurt others, is selfish, even if one thinks it best (end-of-life type situations excluded, obviously). I say this with a lot of sympathy for the deceased, and depressed folks. I think all would be better off if he was still alive, and I wish he knew that.

Now let's all laugh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX1CvW38c…

6 billion people on the planet - life ain't precious or valuable. not mine, not yours, not his. who cares?

@36 -- Tell that to the kid's family, asshole.

What so many people do not seem to understand about suicide is that a person who is suicidal is not operating on the same level as a mentally healthy person. Maybe if suicidal people sat down and said, "You know what, death sounds like more fun than life, so I will do it and not care about who I hurt!" then suicide would be selfish. But that is looking at suicide from the viewpoint of a person who is mentally healthy. People who commit suicide are NOT mentally healthy; they are operating from a place of mental illness. A suicidal person's very reality has been altered by their illness. Options that a healthy person might see are invisible to a suicidal person, and thought processes that regular people have are disrupted. This boy died because he was ill. To judge his actions from the standpoint of someone who has never experienced and/or interacted with such an illness would be a mistake.

Some suicide attempts are a cry for help. A scratch on your wrist is probably a cry for help, or swallowing a handful of aspirin. Going the Cobain route on the other hand - that's not a cry for help. That's I Hate Myself And I Want To Die. I've been there. I remember what it feels like. It not only feels like a logical solution, it feels like the ONLY solution.

The only reason I'm still here is that I met a guy a few years back who'd shot himself in the head with a .45. The damned thing didn't kill him, just horribly mutilated his face. So here's someone who was suicidal to start with, and now he looks like the Elephant Man, like he didn't have enough problems. I never could figure out a truly foolproof method, so I never had the guts to go through with it.

The thing you can't see when you're in the depths of a suicidal depression is that there IS a possibility of remission. It feels terminal. It does not feel like it's possible the depression will ever lift. But it can.

@39, that's weird; I met a guy just like that on the locked mental health ward after my suicide attempt in the 1980s, only he'd used a shotgun and blown off a good portion of his face. also, there was somebody who'd jumped off a highway overpass and survived, if you call having a jumbled, stitched up mass of mangled internal organs, chronic peritonitis from pierced bowels and a needing a colostomy bag surviving.

of course, I met these object lessons after having tried to kill myself so I guess they functioned more as warnings of what could happen if I tried again and messed it up. life is cruel and botched death is also cruel.

Shut up! Shut up! He was and always be an hero!

I always love the pricks screaming 'suicide is selfish- kill the bastard'. Chances are it's those same individuals who have contributed toward making the person's life so miserable suicide is the only option.
As a gay kid living with homophobic parents, I had the joy of failing a suicide attempt, only to have those same homophobes treat me with anger and passive-aggressive behavior at my 'selfishness' until I moved out at 16. And I can assure you their behavior would have been even worse had I come out to them.
I agree (from a mentally healthy perspective) that it IS a selfish act towards folks who love them. BUT- suicidal people KNOW they are unloved/accepted by everyone at the time they attempt, true or not. It's been proven again and again that if a suicidal can be persuaded that even ONE PERSON loves them and will grieve over their death, they will not suicide.

This is so Japanese.

I cant believe this is an argument. This thought can only be examined from one perspective at a time and come up with a true answer. From the point of the mind broken, depressed victim it is an escape from a bleek reality that has no other exit. From the point of view of those left behind it is selfish at the least, maybe even cowardly depending on the circumstance.
The same arguement of perspective can be placed on the concept of murder during war time. Killing people to stop an evil empire from world domination is exceptable from the perspective of the winning side and murder from the losing side. The only thing that the 2 arguments have in common in either scenario is that some one(s) is ultimately is dead.

sum of u people r fuckinnn stupiod and careless how cud u even think that its nice to even say tose things get a life and i cant even say n e thing to u all cuz i wud then b one of the assholes who egged him on u get wat im saying u know my moms always told me if u cant say sumthin nice dont say anthing at all ASS HOLES r.i.p or wherever