An Indiana teenager was shot dead in front of his dad when a pair of men tried to rob him of the Xbox he was trying to sell, according to a new report.
Johnny Peluyera, 16, made the 20 minute trip with his father from their home in Merrillville to Gary to sell the gaming console to someone they had contacted through the app Offer Up, authorities told ABC 7 Chicago.
The situation quickly turned sketchy when Peluyera got out of his dad’s car to greet the “buyers.”
“They took them to an abandoned home and they stated they wanted to test the Xbox and went to these other houses and just used the outdoor outlet to see if the Xbox worked,” said Commander Jack Hamady of the Gary Police Department, told the station.
Then, one of the men, wearing a gray hoodie, removed a semi-automatic handgun from his waistband — as the teen’s dad, still waiting in the car, watched in horror.
“That’s when he told his son, ‘leave the Xbox,’ and he took off with the Xbox,” Hamady told the outlet.
Peluyera made it into his dad’s car and they drove off with the gaming console in tow — but they didn’t make it far before the teen was shot in the back, authorities told the station.
He was pronounced dead on the scene, and his death has been ruled a homicide.
The boy’s father, who was behind the wheel was uninjured.
“They killed my son over nothing,” the victim’s distraught mother, Kelly Arroyo, told the outlet. “They didn’t even get the gaming system. They didn’t even get the Xbox so why did they have to shoot him?”
“I hope you feel the pain that I feel right now,” she added. “I want you to live with this the rest of your life.”
The two suspects, who authorities say are in their late teens or early 20s, remain at large.
