Throughout WWE’s many broadcasts, the organization will often feature commercial spots in which one of its stars will tell those watching “don’t try this.” Not even “don’t try this at home,” but “don’t try this”… period. Unfortunately, that message may not have been enough for 9-year old Damori Miles, who is suspected of having fallen to his death as the result of imitating Jeff Hardy’s Swanton Bomb from one of the PlayStation 2 WWE SmackDown vs. RAW video games.
“He tried to do a swan dive like Jeff Harding does in ‘SmackDown.’ That was his favorite game. He played it all the time,” said Miles’ best friend, 11-year old Shakar Murrel. “That was what he was trying to do. If I would have seen him up there, I would have told him not to do it.”
Curiously, young Miles made his attempt to emulate the former World Champion by utilizing a crudely-fashioned homemade parachute, created from a plastic bag and some string, and jumping from the roof of his Brooklyn apartment. Needless to say, those in the WWE tend to work without a net, much less a parchute, much less one made from a plastic bag.
After failing to appear where he was supposed to be for a scheduled Tuesday night play date with Shakar and Kevin Sumore, ages 9 and 11, respectively. “His older sister came knocking on the door looking for him at 7:30. She had no idea he was dead. None of us did,” said Shakar’s parent, Sumore Murrel.
The body was found at 7pm, and Miles died at the Interfaith Medical Center an hour later.
“It’s terrible. The kids try to imitate what they see and they think they can fly,” Sumore added.
However, there’s more to the story than a child simply imitating a video game: Miles was receiving special education instruction, and left his 10th floor apartment to go up to the building’s roof, which was found open on Wednesday morning. According to neighbors, there was an alarm which should have sounded, but was broken.
“I was sitting inside and I heard a thump. I looked out my window and saw the boy on the ground. He was on his back and his clothes were ripped off,” said Chiquita Jones, 25. “The door to the roof should have been locked. Damori didn’t have to die.”
Damori’s mother told detectives that she had returned from a trip to the store to find her son on the ground.
Now, Murrel is reconsidering what her children play. “I need to keep a better eye on what they are playing or watching. Kids are so impressionable,” she said.
When contacted for comment, WWE spokesperson Robert Zimmerman noted that the game was intended for those ages 13 and up. Furthermore, none of the characters, Jeff Hardy or otherwise, use parachutes of jump off buildings (though to be fair, Hardy has made some insane dives from heights taller than many buildings).
“The death of Damori Miles is a tragedy and our condolences go out to his family,” he said. “We should allow the authorities to conduct a full investigation… including insecure roof access, before conclusions are made about this unfortunate incident.”
Kotaku points out that “the New York Daily News’ original story had no mention of the video game connection, simply titled “9-year-old Brooklyn boy jumps from building using makeshift parachute and dies“, written by different staff writers. THe same story from two different angles,” adding “I guess the video game angle just makes for more exciting news.”
They also note “The roof should have been locked. Neighbors said that an alarm should have gone off, but it had not. The boy’s mother had left him alone to go to the store. A 9-year-old who had received special education instruction, left alone to his own devices.” I fully agree.
On a final note, I mentioned at the top of the post that the WWE makes specific warnings telling people “don’t try this.” As far as I know, however, those have never appeared in any of the games. I wonder now if perhaps that might have helped.
Furthermore, it brings to mind an issue I’ve long wondered about: Those messages are often delivered by wrestlers such as Randy Orton and Montel Vontavious Porter, who have been enormous heels (bad guys) for the company. Sure, MVP is a good guy now, but not when they began running that clip. I’ve long wondered just how receptive kids are to being told what not to do by the characters they’re supposed to be booing.
I mean, as a kid, if Megatron told you not to play with guns or Shredder said not to play with knives, would you have listened? Just a thought.
