Man who allegedly flew to Florida to assault gamer with hammer after on-line dispute charged with tried homicide

A person is in custody on tried second-degree homicide expenses after allegedly attacking one other particular person with a hammer, police mentioned Monday. 

Edward Kang, 20, allegedly flew from Newark, New Jersey to Jacksonville, Florida to confront the unnamed sufferer after a dispute by the web fantasy online game referred to as ArcheAge, Nassau County Sheriff Invoice Leeper mentioned in a information convention.  

“It is a bizarre one,” Leeper mentioned. “Some issues make you say ‘Hmm.’ Some issues, you simply cannot make up. There are some issues that make you say ‘What on the earth was he pondering?’ And there are some issues that make you say ‘You are not going to consider this.’ This case makes you say all 4 of these.” 

Leeper mentioned that Kang flew from Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport to Jacksonville Worldwide Airport and stayed on the Ocean Coast Lodge in Fernandina Seashore since Friday. As soon as in Florida, Kang went to an Ace {Hardware} and bought a hammer and flashlight, Leeper mentioned. Receipts for the gadgets had been present in his resort room. 

Kang was capable of enter the sufferer’s house in Fernandina Seashore as a result of the entrance door was unlocked, in keeping with Leeper. Kang, sporting all-black clothes, gloves and a masks, attacked the sufferer, and the 2 ended up struggling on the bottom, the sheriff mentioned. 

Deputies had been referred to as to the house by the sufferer’s stepfather, who reported being woke up by his stepson’s screams for assist. He informed police he discovered his stepson on the bottom fighting Kang. 

Police discovered a “vital quantity of blood” within the entryway of the house and within the sufferer’s bed room, Leeper mentioned. 

Each Kang and the sufferer had been taken to an space hospital. The sufferer sustained “extreme head wounds,” however they weren’t life-threatening, Leeper mentioned. He has since been launched from the hospital. Kang was launched into the custody of the Nassau County Sheriff’s Workplace. 

Kang allegedly informed a deputy that the sufferer is “a foul particular person on-line,” Leeper mentioned, and requested how a lot time in jail he may serve for breaking, coming into and assault. 

“I’d say, ‘Mr. Kang, it may be a very long time earlier than you play video video games once more,'” Leeper mentioned. 

Kang shouldn’t be cooperating with the investigation and stays within the Nassau County Jail, Leeper mentioned. Jail data present that Kang has additionally been charged with armed housebreaking, along with the cost of tried second-degree homicide. Each are felony expenses. 

Leeper mentioned that the incident serves as a reminder that on-line altercations can spill over into the actual world and burdened that individuals ought to train warning on-line, report suspicious habits, and maintain properties securely locked.