Joshua G. Spellman, a 36-year-old-man allegedly shot and killed his friend of 26 years over a dispute which happened in Diablo 2, a hack-and-slash video game.
The victim identified Andrew W. Dickson suffered a gunshot wound to his torso where he was rushed to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver. He unfortunately died after surgery from his injuries according to court documents.
The two both lived on Spellman’s parent’s property but in different buildings.
According to the prosecution, Joshua G. Spellman has no known criminal history and has his bail set at $750,000.
According to an interview with detectives, there was a third friend involved online via a voice chat. The dispute happened after Joshua and Andrew were trying to transfer valuable items to each other in a public game, which allows random players to join in. A random player then joined the game and picked up the valuable items.
After this occurred, the affidavit says Dickson began yelling for three to five minute, angry that the valuable loot was taken. Spellman allegedly told Dickson he “needed to calm down or he was going to get shot.”
Dickson continued on, so Spellman grabbed his gun which was sitting beside his desk and walked to the building Dickson was playing in. During his walk over, Spellman shot a round into the air. Once Spellman entered the building Dickson was in, Dickson confronted Spellman about the threat to shoot him. According to the affidavit, Dickson “closed the distance” where he was then promptly shot in his torso.
When asked by investigators if Spellman had to retrieve the gun prior to walking to Dickson’s place, he said it was by his computer. When investigators asked why, Spellman replied with “Why not? This is America.”
Spellman is scheduled to be arraigned on December 29, 2021.