31 year old Docquen Jovo Watkins of Michigan has been arrested for second-degree murder after he allegedly choked his boyfriend of 10 years to death. The incident took place in the Pontiac suburb of Detroit, Michigan on Thursday, January 6, with the couple reportedly getting into a fight about Blizzard’s popular hero-shooter game Overwatch.
According to the NBC News report, Watkins is accused of “fatally choking” longtime boyfriend 28 year old Rory Teasley after the two were fighting about Overwatch. Sometime after this took place, Watkins called police himself and explained that he and Teasley got into a fight and Teasley was now “sleeping.” Police arrived on the scene and found Teasley “unconscious and not breathing,” with him later pronounced dead at the hospital. Watkins will be in court on Tuesday, January 18. Details on what exactly triggered the fight about Overwatch have not been revealed at the time of this writing.
Teasley had amassed a sizable following on the social media app TikTok prior to his death, with over 225,000 followers and 2.4 million likes across his videos. His most popular video was posted on December 27, 2021 with over 475,000 likes, 2,000 comments, 3,500+ shares, and a staggering 2.7 million views. Teasley’s most recent video was posted about a week ago wherein he joked about getting old.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that someone has been killed over a video game dispute. One of the more infamous examples was when Tyler Barriss, upset over a $1.50 wager in a Call of Duty game, attempted to “swat” his opponent by reporting a fake hostage situation to police. Barriss told police the incorrect address, leading to the death of 28 year old father of two Andrew Finch, who had nothing to do with the Call of Duty match and didn’t know Barriss.
Less than a month ago on Wednesday, December 15, there was another fatal dispute over a Blizzard game. In that incident, 36 year old Joshua G. Spellman was accused of shooting and killing his friend of 26 years, Andrew W. Dickson, due to an argument about Diablo 3 loot.
On the death of Rory Teasley, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard told NBC News, “We see far too often across the country these days when people resort to violence over trivial and insignificant disagreements. There is a never a reason where violence is acceptable over a disagreement. Those that do so will be held accountable.”
Source: NBC News
