Zion Shockley was so upset over losing at Call of Duty and being mocked by other players that he turned off his gaming console and beat his infant daughter to death, police claim.
The 18-year-old Pennsylvania father is being accused of launching a horrific attack against his 5-month-old daughter that led to her death, the Miami Herald reported. The report claimed that the teenager was angry over other Call of Duty players mocking him for losing the game, with one calling him a “failure.”
As the Associated Press reported, Shockley later told police that he violently shook the infant girl after losing at the game, showing them on a doll during an interrogation how he threw her up in the air and purposely failed to catch her. He also violently shook the baby for a full minute before leaving her alone to get a drink of water.
The baby went into cardiac arrest, and Shockley called the police, who rushed the infant to a hospital. Prosecutors said the baby was bleeding from her brain and eyes and there were signs of ongoing abuse as well, according to the Miami Herald . The girl died two days after the attack.
“When the defendant was being mocked by players and his reaction was to severely injure and ultimately murder his own child, that is someone who should not be in charge of a child to begin with,” said District Attorney Tom Hogan.
But some family members said they don’t believe Zion Shockley could be capable of such abuse. His grandfather, Frank Easton, told CBS Philadelphia that the teenager cared deeply for his infant daughter and believed the injuries that led to her death were not intentional.
“She was just a baby. He loved that daughter, he loved her to death. He wouldn’t let nobody touch her. He loved her, he’s not guilty,” said Easton. “It was an accident.”
The grandfather added that Shockley shared custody of the young girl with the baby’s mother and that the 18-year-old was an active father to her.
The story is making news at the same time as another alleged case of child abuse. A mother by the name of Lovily Johnson is being accused of leaving her infant son alone in a car seat for days, leading to the boy’s death. Police said Johnson told them she was “just too busy” to attend to her baby.
Lovily Johnson: Mother Allegedly Left Infant Alone In Carseat For Days To Die, Claimed She Was ‘Just Too Busy’. #Crime #CrimeStory https://t.co/Xrcyj8OHzT
— The Inquisitr (@theinquisitr) February 24, 2018
Zion Shockley faces a murder charge for the death of his infant daughter. He is currently being held in jail without bail.