WWE respond to death of kid imitating Jeff Hardy

[John]

Several Wrestling News World readers have sent word about the death 9-year-old Damori Miles yesterday morning. According to a report by the New York Daily News, Miles died following injuries he sustained after jumping off his Brooklyn apartment roof. Apparently the kid was wearing a homemade parachute imitating Jeff Hardy’s Swanton Dive from the SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 video game.

Friends of Damori Miles are quoted in the New York Daily News saying, "He tried to do a swan dive like Jeff Hardy does in 'SmackDown.' That was his favorite game. He played it all the time." The roof door was open Wednesday morning and according to neighbors, the alarm that should have gone off, was broken. One witness said, "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."

Robert Zimmerman, a spokesman for WWE, said the video was designed for ages 13 and up and none of the characters use parachutes or jump off 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."

You can read more coverage at this link.

[DUKE NUKEM]

wow thanks for the read John

[coachthor]

This is what happens when you push a crack head like hardy and use him to target 7- 14 year old little boys. This product shouldn't be pushed to little kids. I bet this is the start of another trend we will be seeing (unfortunatly) alot of soon. VKM is a jerk.

[tommy]

You are being too harsh. It's not Vince's fault, it's the bad parenting and an unlocked door. The kid shouldn't have been playing that game, the parents dropped the ball.

[Kage]

It's the parent's fault, nuff said.

[panteraopeth]

While this type of thing is very sad to read about and even worse that it was allowed by the parents to happen (leaving him unattended long enough to get on the roof and jump). I don't think anyone should be blamed other than the child. For all we know the parents were very responsible, took everything into consideration and decided they felt their child was mature enough to handle a video game, and perhaps this was the first time the child ever did anything even remotely like this.

Also, it's not like this is something that just started happening, kids and adults alike have been imitating wrestlers for years now, getting hurt and unfortunately killed. So blaming anyone in the WWE (like Jeff Hardy) makes no sense.

[scorpionf]

One would think a 9 year old would have enough common sense not to jump off the roof....

There is noone to blame but the kid... The parents probably thought he was responsible enough to play the game, and not stupid enough to try and imitate what he sees on the screen.

The door to the roof should have been locked, and the alarm should have been in working order - sounds to me, that if the parents want to point the finger of blame, it should be at the people in charge of the building maintenance and themselves, and not the WWE or Jeff Hardy.