DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)
A troubled American teenager who said he "hated" himself committed suicide on Friday in front of a webcam streaming live on the Internet and watched by more than 1,500 people.
Abraham K Biggs, 19, had previously blogged about his intention to end his life, but it was on the video streaming site Justin.tv where Biggs was seen taking a drug overdose, egged on by viewers who thought he was faking it.
" When (police) came in, the webfeed stopped. So that's 12 hours of watching. They got hits, they got viewers, nothing happened for hours. " Rosalind Biggs slams website viewers It was only after the young student had been lying motionless on his bed for several hours that members of the site realized he wasn't acting and notified the authorities.
With the webcam still on police were seen breaking into Biggs' Florida home and checking his pulse, he was confirmed dead and an autopsy showed he died of a toxic combination of opiates and benzodiazepine, a drug used to treat anxiety and insomnia.
Rosalind Biggs, Abraham's sister, slammed viewers and website operators for watching the live feed for 12 hours and not saving her brother.
"When (police) came in, the webfeed stopped. So that's 12 hours of watching. They got hits, they got viewers, nothing happened for hours," the UK's Press Association quoted Rosalind as saying.
"It boggles the mind…we don't understand," Rosalind added.
Rosalind said although her brother struggled with bipolar disorder he was a friendly, social, outgoing person who enjoyed spending times with his young nieces, the news agency reported. |
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"I hate myself" " I used to think of my failure as some mystical way of telling me that I was really meant for something meaningful…the only thing I dread, besides the pain, is the way my family will suffer. " Suicide note In a purported suicide note posted by Miami television station WPLG on its website, Biggs said: "I hate myself and I hate living."
"I am an a**hole. I have let everyone down and I feel I will never change or improve. I am in love with a girl and I know I am not good enough for her. I have come to believe that my life has all been meaningless. I keep trying and I keep failing. I have thought about and attempted suicide many times," Biggs said.
"I used to think of my failure as some mystical way of telling me that I was really meant for something meaningful…the only thing I dread, besides the pain, is the way my family will suffer," he said.
The suicide video has since been removed from all major video streaming sites.
In the UK there have been at least 17 deaths involving chat rooms since 2001. Last year, a 42-year-old man killed himself in front of a webcam in what was believed to be Britain's first suicide on the Internet. Viewers saw him climb onto a chair, tie a rope around a ceiling joist and hang himself. |
