4 Chan User Tries to kill himself on Camera

[Bells]

i'm opening this thread just to share information on the facts of this, as i'm sure you all will hear of this one way or another in the next few days (if you haven't already).

here is the bottom line.

Dude goes to 4 chan, says that if someone gives him a place to stream he will kill himself live on camera by fire.

Someone indulges him, he does it. Chugs pills and alcohool and then proceeds to trap himself under a blanket and sets his room on fire.

In the end of the video firefighters are seen dragging him away.

Yes, there is a video. Yes, i saw it. No, i will not share the link and i already deleted the file.

I'll leave this idiotic montage of the time line if you want to see it for yourself. There is nothing majorly graphic about this, but it being a real thing, might be disturbing to some... specially if you hate seeing stupid internet commentary in cases like this

http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/12/1/stephenfire.png

So, this is a thing that apparently actually happened... and i'm sure we will hear all about this stupid idiot in the coming days. Details right now (that i could find) do not confirm him to be dead or alive. But if the Photos above are of any real indication, it appears he has some mild burns on his legs.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

I guess the saving grace is someone bothered to track him down and call the firefighters?

[Bells]

Yes, from snippets of news around apparently he pulled this off in his dorm at the campus, so eventually the firefighters were able to reach him.

News also say that he is in the hospital with mild injuries from smoke inhalation, but alive, with his mother. They apparently will not speak of this issue for a couple more days while he is recuperating.

The University of Guelph has learned that the fire Saturday night in a residence room in Dundas Hall, East Residence, was deliberately set by a student in his room. The 20-year-old male student was injured and admitted to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.Police continue to investigate.

President Alastair Summerlee has posted a statement about the incident.

The fire was reported at 7:40 p.m. and Guelph Fire, Guelph-Wellington emergency medical services, Campus Community Police and Guelph Police responded.

The fire was extinguished by the Guelph Fire Department. Two staff members were also taken to hospital and released.

The fire and damage were confined to the injured student's room. As a precaution, about 30 U of G students were relocated to temporary accommodations Saturday night.

University officials met with affected students and residence life staff several times this weekend.

The University is aware that there is disturbing social media activity circulating about this incident and is urging people not to watch or distribute this hurtful material.

U of G would like to remind its community members that counselling services are always available to assist students and employees, especially during times of distress.

The following services are available on campus:
Student Counselling Services, Ext. 53244
Student Health Services, Ext 52131
Employee Assistance Program for faculty and staff, Ext. 52133
Multi-Faith Resource Team, Ext. 52390

[Red Mage Black]

I was around that night and now I regret it. Guy even has a nickname and officially his own image macros. Fire was started when he put a piece of paper in a toaster... etc etc. Heard why he did it, which is what I'm sure the media sites won't tell you. Though the fact he actually 'delivered' made him into an internet hero, even if he didn't succeed.

Not sure I'd chalk this up to stupidity, at least on his side, but on the side of /b/. At least someone in the audience wasn't stupid enough to just sit by and watch. Just goes to show, that even in a group of faceless anonymous assholes, there will be at least one or two people that actually care.

[Aerozord]

honestly I'm shocked it took this long for someone to pull this. Whether or not he intended to kill himself (I'm guessing he didn't care either way) he was mostly likely motivated because he wanted attention.

I do wonder what legal action might be taken. From what Bells said it sounded like someone gave him the tools to broadcast and it was not his own set up. Even if he was just calling the persons bluff he did agree to broadcast a human death which I believe is illegal.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

honestly I'm shocked it took this long for someone to pull this. Whether or not he intended to kill himself (I'm guessing he didn't care either way) he was mostly likely motivated because he wanted attention.

I do wonder what legal action might be taken. From what Bells said it sounded like someone gave him the tools to broadcast and it was not his own set up. Even if he was just calling the persons bluff he did agree to broadcast a human death which I believe is illegal.

Considering how streaming works with installing programs and setting up accounts it's more likely he was asking for someone to link him to a webcam streaming site for him to use than to actually provide tools necessary to do it. Theoretically speaking, the person responsible could claim that he took the request as a part of a joking way to ask for information on streaming, and by the time he realized it was a legitimate suicide attempt couldn't do anything to stop it.

[Bells]

It is pretty clear in the video... he is using a service like a private Omeegle or Chatroullete. He is in a room with 200 people (the max for that room) with his cam on one side and someone else's on the other side.

He being the "Host" i suppose...

The other person changes several times during the video, and their reactions tell the whole story about them, at least for me... so we go from people who clearly believe they are watching a hoax that will be the next internet thing... to just flat out complete assholes.

The kid took pills and drank a lot, so he was clearly out of his common sense. He didn't turn his own microphone put appeared to be talking to his "audience" several times, and payed little to no attention to the waves of chat messages... but it's all hard to tell.

The one thing i don't want to see right now is some jackass acting as a copy cat of this or someone pulling pranks to simulate what this guy did... that would be too much sickness for me to handle, to be quite honest.

[Aerozord]

I'm just going off what people are saying, I refuse to actually watch the video or even view screen captures. Nor do I wish to randomly click around for information in case it has those things. Not the most professional but I feel its justified in this case

[Red Mage Black]

It is pretty clear in the video... he is using a service like a private Omeegle or Chatroullete. He is in a room with 200 people (the max for that room) with his cam on one side and someone else's on the other side.

He being the "Host" i suppose...

The other person changes several times during the video, and their reactions tell the whole story about them, at least for me... so we go from people who clearly believe they are watching a hoax that will be the next internet thing... to just flat out complete assholes.

The kid took pills and drank a lot, so he was clearly out of his common sense. He didn't turn his own microphone put appeared to be talking to his "audience" several times, and payed little to no attention to the waves of chat messages... but it's all hard to tell.

The one thing i don't want to see right now is some jackass acting as a copy cat of this or someone pulling pranks to simulate what this guy did... that would be too much sickness for me to handle, to be quite honest.

200 people max? That'd be tinychat, I think.

From what I heard, there *was* sound(can't confirm this). Maybe the video you saw was someone who recorded that didn't have it. Heard he was ranting about why he was doing it. Somebody might have a transcript or at least an accurate account of what he said. All I know is it had to do with a massive debt he couldn't pay off and a bad breakup. Maybe he just typed it all in, also heard it was all jumbled anyway, so I guess we'll never know for sure. Only screenshot I had was the firefighters pulling him out and idiots screaming in chat. (Capslock, shouting, etc)

Considering how streaming works with installing programs and setting up accounts it's more likely he was asking for someone to link him to a webcam streaming site for him to use than to actually provide tools necessary to do it. Theoretically speaking, the person responsible could claim that he took the request as a part of a joking way to ask for information on streaming, and by the time he realized it was a legitimate suicide attempt couldn't do anything to stop it.

From what I've seen of /b/, it was definitely someone humoring him and not expecting him to actually go through with it. You see like 20 different kinds of these threads there all the time, so it's not a surprise there was actually someone who didn't expect it. It's also not such a big surprise that it maxed out.

All in all, /b/ attracts all kinds, but just attributing it to one website won't solve the problem. Truth be told, all he would have needed to do was go to a completely different site(or board for that matter) and it's not like the results would have been any different. It was a sad play at getting attention.

[rpgdemon]

stupid idiot

Is that really necessary? The guy clearly had a mental disorder and was in need of help, not derision and contempt.

I've not looked into the situation at all past reading what you posted, but do you really want to be attacking a suicide victim who clearly needed help?

The people who egged him on are idiots, terrible people, et cetera, but the guy himself seems to be a victim to me.

[Bells]

I've not looked into the situation at all past reading what you posted,

The guy clearly had a mental disorder

How is anything you think i'm doing wrong, worst than what you just did?


And as far as information goes right now... no, he does not have a Metal Disorder.

So instead of commenting any further, i'm going to suggest you take up on reading about the thing you are commenting about.

[POS Industries]

The difference is that rpg isn't demonizing whatever mental or emotional issues the guy might have had and saying that it makes him a bad person, while you outright insulted someone who tried to kill himself.

[Bells]

saying that it makes him a bad person

Implying that i did. Enough to not even bother going further into it... because, of course, what you think i said is more valid than what i'm actually saying.

Wanna circle back to this bullshit? Go right ahead, have the full floor to yourself. I'm not even bothering with these tired patterns... Thread is yours. Wanna talk to me about this? I have PM, skype, mail... if not, no problem at all.

[synkr0nized]

If you don't mean to insult him, then why did you call him a "stupid idiot", as quoted?

Also, if you don't think that's what you did, don't run away from it when you're shown otherwise; maybe try to explain what you meant, or correct your wording, instead of just assuming it's The Next NPF Drama thing and going mute.




As to the actual story, this is awful but not at all unsurprising for "today's Internet". I am pleased to read that at least someone was worried and helped, that the firefighters got there.

[Bard The 5th LW]

I'm not going to belittle him for attempting to commit suicide, but it was a pretty callous action of him to start a fire in a dorm where other people could very well be affected? Like, lets not forget that fire spreads. He's certainly a victim of something but I think there's definitely some reckless endangerment if it was indeed in a college dorm.

[Aerozord]

I'd say the college dorm thing is irresponsible but if you are suicidal collateral damage is usually pretty low on your priorities.

The reason I have issue is that he wanted to make a spectacle of it. Depression might justify wanting to die, but it seems odd for it to motivate you to stream your death to hundreds of people. To me that sounds more like a cry for attention than a cry for help.

[Red Mage Black]

At least I'd like to believe that it may have been 50/50. Usually people who commit suicide don't tell anyone that they're going to do it. Maybe he advertised on 4chan/b/ both in an attempt to get attention and a cry for help? I mean, looking at the site now, he must have known someone was going to do something about it. (Hell, even during the Pre-Chanology days someone would have done something.)

In a way, I suppose he was gambling on the odds of who had a heart and who just wanted to watch him die.