Florida teen commits suicide live in Internet video

A 19-year-old committed suicide while broadcasting live on Justin.tv. He apparently took the pills before he started broadcasting and let the camera run for hours until he died. The police arrived to shut the camera off.

Abraham K. Biggs overdosed on pills and died in front of the camera, broadcasting it live on Justin.tv. For hours he appeared to be breathing until the users realized it must be something serious, then contacting police. The commenters, from both Justin.tv and from his forum in Bodybuilding.com, initially laughed and mocked him but later as they saw him dying, they informed police about the incident. The police broke into his house and shut the camera off but they couldn’t prevent his death. Biggs' original video is taken down now by Justin.tv, along with many of the forum posts were taken down. Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel told Newteeve.com:

As for the broadcaster incident last night, we don’t comment on individual videos, however, our policy prohibits inappropriate content on Justin.tv. We rely on the community to flag videos that they feel are objectionable. Once a video is flagged, it is reviewed and quickly removed from the system if it violates our Terms of Use.

Screen grab

Biggs killed himself live via an Internet video. The video continued to run until a police officer, pictured here, stopped the tape.

image:44750:9::0

But the video or pictures can still found online at other sites. Andrew Biggs’ suicide note is posted here. He mainly blames himself and it must have gotten worse with insults from others in the forum and from some commenters in Justin.tv. The forum here posts the notes while they watched Biggs committing suicide and later contacting the police for help. Last year, another man died in England who hung himself to death on live TV after the fellow users pushed him to do the deed. This Florida incident looks similar but it appears he swallowed the pills before he came on Justin.tv. The initial comments in the forum, however, lack any sensitivity and seem to call him names. When someone is in dire straits, the last thing one should do is mock or tease them.