Teen Shot to Death in Front of Father During XBox Theft

Johnny Peluyera, 16, was murdered in front of his father during a meet-up to sell his Xbox on Wednesday.

Peluyera and his dad used the “Offer Up” app to find a buyer for his Xbox, and traveled from their home in Merrillville to Gary, Indiana. Almost immediately, things took a suspicious turn.

“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,” Gary Police Department Commander Jack Hamady told Chicago’s ABC 7.

Peluyera’s father remained waiting in the car during this sequence of events, but when one of the “buyers” pulled a gun, he told his son to just “leave the Xbox.” Tragically, the teenager did not leave it, instead grabbing it and running back to the vehicle. As they left, he was shot in the back.

“They killed my son over nothing,” said Kelly Arroyo, Johnny’s mother. “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, speaking to the unidentified suspects who remain at large. “I want you to live with this the rest of your life.”