Daniel Petric

**Daniel Petric** (born August 22, 1991) is a American convicted murderer who shot both of his parents at the age of 16 causing the death of his mother and injured his father due to his copy of *Halo 3* being taken away from him on October 20, 2007.

## Background

Daniel Petric was born on August 22, 1991 to Mark and Susan Petric in Wellington, Ohio, United States. His father, was a Pentecostal minister at the New Life Assembly of God, in Wellington, and his mother was a housewife. Petric was always known as an easy-going child. According to his father, he has always had good relations with him and his mother. His friends spoke of him as casual, friendly. Because his father was a clergyman, Daniel often visited church, and people there would talk about his passion for the Bible. He attended a high school in Wellington, Ohio, and was an average student. One student described him as "friendly and fun to be around". He never disrespected his teachers and friends.

One of Daniel's greatest pleasures was skiing. He was injured during a ski trip and his wound was infected. As a result of this injury, he had to stay at home for 1 year, and during his stay at home, a friend showed him the video game series Halo. He was playing Halo for 8 hours a day at his friend's house. He told his father that he wanted to buy one of the copies of this game and play it at home, but his father, who was against violent games, told him that he had to leave the house if he wanted to play this game. He played Halo with his friend at his friend's house in small intervals on the weekends. In October 2007, without his father's knowledge, he bought a copy of the new game of the series, Halo 3, and was secretly playing it at home. His father noticed the situation and took the game from him and put it in a safe with a nine-millimeter Taurus PT92 handgun.

## Murder of Susan Petric

On October 20, 2007, a week after his game was taken away from him, Daniel somehow managed to obtain the keys to the safe and took the gun along with his game. At 7 o'clock in the evening, Daniel came behind his family who were watching television and said, "*Would you close your eyes, I have a surprise for you*.". He shot both of his parents and put the gun in his father's hand and said, "*Hey dad, here's your gun. Take it.*" He wanted to make it look like his father shot his mother and then committed suicide. His father said in a statement that he did not hear the gunshot, everything became silent for him and he could not move.

He began to arrange the crime scene as he wanted. A few minutes later, her sister Heidi and her husband Andrew Archer arrived at the house to watch a baseball game, arriving earlier than the appointed time. Daniel started yelling at them that his parents were fighting, while his father started screaming for help. Heidi, who entered the house, was faced with the crime scene. Daniel was trying to escape by getting into the family car. He was soon caught and shouted "*My dad shot my mom !*" while the police were handcuffing him.

## Trial and Conviction

Daniel's trial started shortly after, in which his father said that he did not know why his son did such a thing and that he was with him. Daniel was also seen crying during the trial. His father asked the court to forgive his son, but the court insisted that he was a cold-blooded murderer. He changed the crime scene, knew his sister would come, so he acted appropriately and planned. In his conversation with a psychologist, he said that he had been planning this for a week. Daniel's defense was that he was mentally disturbed by the game he played and had forgotten the difference between the game and reality.

As a result of the trial, Daniel Petric was found guilty of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder and tampering with evidence and Sentenced to life imprisonment with possibility of parole after 23 years.