Popular mythology has it that video games drive children to violence, but in this news story the roles are reversed.
A 31-year-old father from North Texas was charged with capital murder after he allegedly killed his two-year-old daughter Ellie Sanders in their Fort Worth home.
According to Star-Telegram, police believe that an enraged Anthony Sanders struck Ellie all over her body, even going so far as biting her on her back, and murdered her by holding her down with his hand over her face.
The reason for it? His daughter disturbed him while playing his computer games.
“He’s very involved in computer gaming…That’s something he did constantly,” said Watauga police Sgt. Jason Babcock. “She may have interrupted him somehow. His day may have been interrupted.”
Reports said that Sanders had been watching Ellie and his 5-year-old son that day while his wife went to an art show.
Anthony Michael Sanders, 31, murdered his 2-year-old daughter in December; Photo credit: Watauga Police Department
When the doctors discovered fresh injuries on the girl’s body, including bruises around her eyes, blood behind her ear and two adult bite marks on her back, they began to suspect foul play.
Furthermore, Sanders couldn’t explain the origin of these bruises, but he was the only adult during the hours when the suspected incident occurred.
“Anthony, by his own admission, was the only adult that was in the residence during the time the injuries were inflicted upon his daughter which caused her death,” a Watauga police detective wrote in the arresting documents.
Not only that, Sanders already has a record with the police: in 2011 he was charged for choking his wife, but the grand jury decided not to indict him.
Tarrant County medical examiners ruled that Ellie’s death was a homicide by asphyxiation.
Sanders was arrested by the Watauga police the day after the doctors’ findings.
A judge set his bail at $1 million.
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