Drowning Pool's 'Bodies' Blamed for Arizona Murder Rampage

Drowning Pool has been implicated in the murder rampage in Arizona after police revealed that 22-year-old suspect Jared Loughner had favored their 2001 single, “Bodies,” on his YouTube channel.

Loughner was apprehended after six people were shot dead in Tucson, including 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green. U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was also shot during the incident and is currently recovering in the hospital.

The Washington Post reported that the shooter had an unofficial video featuring “Bodies” playing in the background while a hooded figure wearing a garbage bag for pants limps across the desert to set fire to an American flag. The video was listed as a favorite on his YouTube channel, leading many media commentators to speculate over whether the killer was influenced by the song.

“Let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the floor,” are some of the lyrics that crooned in the video, creating a surreal and eerie scene that is similar to Saturday’s shooting.

Although investigators have not suggested that Loughner’s violent outburst was directly caused by the song, “Bodies” strikes a familiar chord in related murders, Post reports. Back in 2003, a 19-year-old boy cranked the pulsating tune in his headphones, walked out of his bedroom holding a 12-gauge shotgun and killed his parents.

"You're never sure what caused an individual to commit a specific act," said Brad Bushman, a communications and psychology professor at Ohio State University. "But I've been doing research on violent media for 20 years, and the evidence is that it leads to aggressive behavior. It's not the only factor that leads to violence, but it's one of them."

Drowning Pool, devastated by the allegations, released a statement on their Web site stating that they were disheartened by those whose lives were taken in the tragic event, and that “our song has been misinterpreted, again.”

"'Bodies' was written about the brotherhood of the mosh pit and the respect people have for each other in the pit. If you push others down, you have to pick them back up. It was never about violence. It's about a certain amount of respect and a code."

The statement added: "For someone to put out a video misinterpreting a song about a mosh pit as fuel for a violent act shows just how sick they really are."

Drowning Pool’s song has received media attention in the past after the media learned “Bodies” was used as a tool of torture at Guantanamo Bay in 2003 when it was played repeatedly to “stress” detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi. The song has also been a battlefield anthem for U.S. troops before they engage in active duty and professional wrestlers and fighters.

David Horowitz, the executive director of the First Amendment group Media Coalition stated that Drowning Pool shouldn’t carry any blame for their song, even if it provoked Loughner to do what he did.

"The idea that we would diminish the speech that we allow based on how it might be received by the most unstable listener would leave us with little speech whatsoever," he said, adding that "people commit murders in the name of the Bible or the Koran. To somehow hold the artist, the author, the speaker responsible for how the most unstable person drawn to the music or literature or movie might later act would deprive the 99.999 percent of people who never do anything illegal or violent."