So THAT is what a murderer looks like??

[Running Mommy]

I never thought I would meet someone who turned out to be a murderer, but I just discovered that one of our customers is implicated in a high profile murder.
It's shocking really. I'm stunned. Esp. because he's a KID!

It happened a couple of weeks ago. A guy who happens to be in law enforcement goes to wal mart one night and comes on a kid laying in the parking lot looking hurt. He stops to help the kid, another kid comes out of the shadows and shoots the guy. They take his body, dump it in their community and take off to a party. Then they come back and attempt to burn the car to hide their crimes.
They end up catching the kids pretty quickly. I think one was 15 and the other 16. They show their mug shots on the news and I instantly recognize one of the kids. I told running hubby that I thought he had been in the store. RH told me I was nuts. But when they said his name it really rang a bell, so I looked up the record. Sure enough...
UGH
RH now remembers the kid. He was hard to forget. Mostly because he was so rude! I remember speaking to him and all the sudden his phone rang. In the middle of a sentence he turns away and answers his phone as if I didn't exist. I remember thinking that he was a spoiled punk.
Now I'm left pondering if his actions should be a warning sign.
I just keep thinking "so is that what a kid who doesn't value human life acts like?"
Running son remembers him as well. We had a big talk about what makes a kid de-value human life like that? What makes them think that it's remotely ok to kill another person?
Running son is equally stunned. Esp. since it's clear they thought this one out.
scary. sad. stunning.

And of course big prayers to the victim and his pregnant wife.
Yes, pregnant...

Sigh......

[crazycanuck]

WTF..

I'm sorry that you had to put up with the little punk RM! At least you can help with the investigation. (((RM))))

I'll probably recieve alot of flak for this but i;ll say it anyways. Where are the parents?? Obviously they don't care & this is what socieity receives.

It's easier to have a dog or cat.

[Mr. Bloom]

cc: I don't think that's a question that warrants any flak. I think it's spot on. But sometimes, the best parents have kids that get in a bad place and can't be brought back.

Think about what happened here:

• this was premeditated
• they preyed on a good samaritan
• there appeared to be no motive other than the "thrill"; if you're after money, there's a lot better places to go than wal-mart.

It's easy to ask about the parents, but I think there's something more pathological here.

RM: I'm just glad that you weren't a victim of a robbery at the hand of this kid.

[Aggie_Ama]

RM- Big hugs!!

Many years ago (although it feels like yesterday) I had a friend murdered. It was a murder-suicide love gone bad thing. His killer walked up in broad daylight and shot my friend outside a co-worker's home. We knew the guy who pulled the trigger and thought he was a little off but as a 15 year old I dismissed him as shy and a little socially inept not someone who would snap upon being dumped. It is horrifying to know someone or have met them. And in this crime being so incredibly brutal and random is just hard to stomach anyway. I hope they find justice for the wife and her baby. Take care Running Family.

[Running Mommy]

Yeah the parent thing really strikes a cord with me.
I did meet the parents as well, as they both brought him in to get his bike fixed. It was a disaster of a franken bike, and the kid didn't know exactly what he wanted, but was demanding all at the same time.
They were nice people, but I remember thinking they let the kid run things. Or being surprised that they let him be so rude to others.
They own a small retail business as well, so I was shocked that they allowed him to act the way he did to us.
Thinking back I'm wondering how involved they were in this kids life??
I dunno? And I'm trying not to judge. Esp. since I really don't know them.
But I do know how easy it is to put the business ahead of your family.
Running son started having problems with his grades, so I decided that I needed to be home with him more. Now I leave the boys in charge every afternoon and go pick him up from school. I sit with him while he does his homework, and make sure he gets his reading in. His grades went from horrid to straight A's immediately.
Being present in your kids life really does matter. I also find that we chat more about things, and he tells me a lot more than he used to. He's in 6th grade now, so it's getting more and more important that I know what's going on.
But back to the topic. Yes, VERY sad for the victims wife. But the community they live in is tight knit I believe, so hopefully they help her. We have another customer that lives in the community. He said that the couple thought they could't have kids, so they were in the middle of adopting two. And then she got pregnant. So now there will be three little kids with no dad.
All because some kids wanted a ride into town to go to a party!

[Irulan]

c

It's easy to ask about the parents, but I think there's something more pathological here.
RM: I'm just glad that you weren't a victim of a robbery at the hand of this kid.

thanks for saying that. I know several people with seriously mentally ill kids(like serial killer mentally ill) that are doing their best with what they've got. Parents do and should get the rap in a lot of cases, but it's best to not use a broad brush unless you really do know the situation.

[salsabike]

thanks for saying that. I know several people with seriously mentally ill kids(like serial killer mentally ill) that are doing their best with what they've got. Parents do and should get the rap in a lot of cases, but it's best to not use a broad brush unless you really do know the situation.

Yes. Ditto.

[Biciclista]

Murderers look like people. Some of them have very pleasant personalities. You can't always judge a book by its cover, although in this case, sounds like he's a sociopath and easy to see what went wrong. I'm sorry that your small community has such a burden.

[Pax]

In my first career (I'm on number 4) I was a deputy sheriff. Since this was 1981 our Sheriff didn't like the idea of females working the street so I spent most of my time working in the jail.

I have had some amazing, revolting, horrific, fascinating, conversations with murderers. Some are charming and undeniably evil, others are flat out wackos, and a small number are repentant and frightened. Night shift at a jail is a life changing experience.

[smilingcat]

My heart goes out the widow and their unborn child.

And the perps., it sounds too much like gang related, like intiation of sort. To become a "made man" of sort. really sick. There is no redemption for people like this. title of a movie says it all "Natural Born Killers"

[Fredwina]

speaking of how the killer can be the kid next door reminds of a story my dad used to tell about his growing up in Memphis, TN during the depression.
when he was a teenager, a new neighbor moved in the house next door. He would play sports with my dad and his brothers. my Grandpa remarked what a nice young man he was.
One day, my Grandpa came home from work(he was a railroad conductor, so he worked odd hours) and found the nice young man handcuffed in the back seat of a car. He was asked a well dressed who appeared to be guarding the car what was going on. "I'm with the FBI and this nice young man is Machine Gun Kelly" was the reply.

[bmccasland]

One day, my Grandpa came home from work(he was a railroad conductor, so he worked odd hours) and found the nice young man handcuffed in the back seat of a car. He was asked a well dressed who appeared to be guarding the car what was going on. "I'm with the FBI and this nice young man is Machine Gun Kelly" was the reply.

Right up there with the FBI walking into my lab (back when I lived in N. AZ) to ask me about my stay at a hotel in Kingman. Apparently I was there the same time as Timothy McVey and Randy Nichols (can't quite remember how to spell their names). I didn't remember seeing them, just remember a bunch of good-ole-boys hanging around the pool drinking. After that, I got to choose the hotels when we traveled.
(They were the Oklahoma City bombers)

E-VILE murderers can look about like the nice kid next door. But somewhere in their brain, there's a screw loose or a short circuit. Either that or they didn't learn to play nice in the sandbox and to share their toys.


RM - cheers to you for going home in the afternoons to be with your son!

[Running Mommy]

Spoke with a customer/friend of the family of this kid.
Apparently the parents tried everything to get the kid help. Numerous programs, counselors, interventions, etc.
Apparently he met the other boy recently, and that created the perfect storm.
Word is that the other boy's parents left him here and moved back to Mexico.
I'm guessing he was staying with someone in the community??

A very sad situation.
The widow is well... a widow with a child on the way and two adoptee's.
And the parents of the boy are looking at losing everything.

I don't know much about mental illness, but my thinking is that there is some kind of malfunction in his brain. Very sad. Maddening, and yet sad.

[moonlight89]

wow i would be shocked too if i were in your shoes. sucks for the family of the victim. good thing nothing happened to you :]