A day after three people lost their lives in a mass shooting at a Jacksonville "Madden" video game tournament, the maker of the annual football game has cancelled the remaining qualifying events for its tourney.
Three more gatherings were scheduled for Electronic Arts' Madden Classic, the "first Madden EA Major competition of this season," as EA CEO Andrew Wilson announced Monday. But all three of those events are no longer on the schedule, as CNBC reported, with Wilson saying EA will instead "run a comprehensive review of safety protocols for competitors and spectators."
"We've all been deeply affected by what took place in Jacksonville," Wilson said in a statement, per CNBC. "This is the first time we've had to confront something like this as an organization, and I believe the first time our gaming community has dealt with a tragedy of this nature."
As CBS News reported, three people, including the suspected shooter, were killed during Sunday afternoon's incident, while almost a dozen others were injured and hospitalized after 24-year-old David Katz, who was at the "Madden" event, allegedly opened fire on players at the event's bar venue in a Jacksonville mall.
Gunshots can be heard in recordings from the tournament on the bar's Twitch account, which was streaming the competition. Williams said investigators were reviewing the footage as evidence and encouraged the public to turn in any additional videos that could help with the investigation.
One competitor, the Ohio-based Ronald "SirusTheVirus" Casey, has since been lauded as a hero at the event, which did not have staffed security. According to WRGT Fox 45, Casey "used his body to protect the younger players who were taking cover" during gunfire. Once seen on ESPN's "Madden Nation," he plays the game professionally and knew some of the victims personally.
Elijah Clayton, 22, and Taylor Robertson, 28, were identified as the two men beside Katz killed in the shooting.
"It is an unthinkable tragedy that Taylor Robertson and Elijah Clayton, two of our top Madden competitors, lost their lives in this way," Wilson said, per CNBC. "They were respected, positive and skilled competitors, the epitome of the players and personalities at the heart of our community."
