Young man flies 1,500 kilometers to beat up a person he fought with in an online game

A young man from New Jersey (USA), identified as Edward Kang, was arrested in the state of Florida, accused of having attacked another person with a hammer with whom he had a dispute in the online video game ArcheAge.

Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper said Kang, 20, was arrested Sunday, June 23, in Ferdinand Beach after officers received a tip about a fight, and he faces a charge of attempted second-degree murder.

According to the investigation, days before the attack, Kang took a Delta flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Jacksonville, Florida, and then purchased a hammer and a flashlight at a hardware store, receipts for which were found by investigators in the hotel room where he was staying.

Leeper also revealed that Kang told his family he was traveling to Florida to visit a friend he had met in a video game years ago.

How the attack occurred

According to police, Kang, who wore black clothing, gloves and a mask, broke into the home early Sunday morning through an unlocked door and waited in a hallway until the victim paused a video game to use the bathroom. When he attacked him, the victim’s screams for help woke up the victim’s stepfather, who went to check on him and found Kang and his stepson fighting on the floor.

After receiving the alert, the police officers went to the home and upon arrival found “a significant amount of blood at the entrance of the house and in the victim’s bedroom,” Leeper explained.

The sheriff also confirmed that Kang and the victim had never met in person previously, and that they only knew each other through the online video game ArcheAge, in which he said you can create characters, fight others, and kill them. “I don’t know what happened between the victim and the suspect, but something made the suspect want to come to Florida and hurt that other individual,” he said.

Finally, he revealed that the detainee was asked why he had committed the attack, and he responded that he did it because the victim is “a bad person online,” adding that he asked how long he could spend in prison for the crimes of housebreaking and aggression, so Leeper said: “I would say, Mr. Kang, it’s going to be a long time before I can play video games again.”