SHOULD WE BE CONCERNED ABOUT VIOLENCE?

Should We be Concerned about Violence? by Snake Blocker 
 

Once in a blue moon we hear about horrific crimes, but the reality is that they happen everyday and everywhere.  Sometimes they make the news, but most times they don't.  Here are a few that made the paper or internet:    

 

Gang member stabs victim with screwdriver

In one trial a gang member robbed a pizza store in the morning, knowing that only single person was present.  The store manager was a young single mother of two children.  The gang member was an ex-employee, she opened the store and allowed him in.  The gang member forced the lady to open the safe and took the money.  Before leaving he tried to force a blue bandana down the victim’s mouth.  She felt that he was trying to kill her.  So she fought back. 

The gang member then slammed her head on the floor several times knocking her out.  He then dragged her to another part of the store and stabbed her in the head 15-20 times with a screwdriver, he brought with him.  Before leaving her for dead, the gang member dropped a 100-pound helium tank on the victim.  The gang member was enraged and committed a violent attack.  The victim was cooperative until he tried to force the bandana down her mouth.  The suspect in this case was caught a short time later and had a history of drug abuse and addiction.  The victim almost died from her head wounds.  In fact, during the trial the emergency room doctor stated that the victim’s head and neck wounds were “life threatening.” 

Ex-student pleads guilty in decapitation

By Tim Huber

The Associated Press

CHRISTIANBURG, Va. – A former Virginia Tech student accused of decapitating another student at a campus eatery pleaded guilty to murder Monday as prosecutors decribed the killer as an obsessed, jilted lover. Haiyang Zhu had fallen in love with Xin Yang but she rejected him, saying that she had a boy friend she planned to marry, prosecutors said in revealing a motive for the first time. Zhu faces up to life in prison. He did not say why he killed the woman during the plea hearing. Prosecutor Brad Finch said on the morning of Jan. 21, Zhu purchased the 8-inch butcher knife used in the murder, two other knives and a claw hammer. He also called Yang a dozen times after buying the weapons. Finch cited a letter Zhu wrote from jail, which said Yang’s rejection “forced him to kill her” because “he love her too much.” “Xin broke his heart on the morning of January 20^th when she told him that she had a boyfriend and that they planned to get married,” the letter said, according to Finch. Before the killing, Zhu penned what Finch termed a love letter that was found in Yang’s dorm room after her death. The letter was written shortly after Zhu first met her and indicated he had “fallen deeply in love.” “She makes him happy and fulfilled, that she is beautiful and that she is beautiful and that he will treasure her forever,” Finch said. “The defendant asked Xin to be his girlfriend.” Finch also described the attack, noting that Yang suffered numerous defensive wounds to her hands and arms as she tried to fend off Zhu. She eventually fell and he severed her head. He was holding it when police arrived. It appeared Yang, who was from Beijing, had met Zhu of Ningbo, China, only recently before she was attacked, Kim Beisecker, the director of Cranwell International Center, has said.Zhu had been assisting her in adjusting to life at Tech, something the 500 Chinese students often do for new members in their community.

Convicted killer jailed in attack on romantic rival

WA SEATTLE – A Seattle woman who was convicted of killing a romantic rival is accused of trying to kill again in a jealous rage over a man. Patricia Crowl was charged with attempted first-degree murder. Police said she used text messages to lure her new boyfriend’s ex to a parking garage and attacked her. The woman called 911 with her cell phone to say she had been “stabbed everywhere.” She survived after being rushed to a hospital. Crowl, 50 was freed from prison in 2006 after serving time for second-degree murder for using a wrench to kill a woman who had been dating Crowl’s then-boyfriend. Crowl was being held on $3 million bail.

Minister shot dead after cutting deputy’s hand off

Al, Ashland – A man who was shot and killed after cutting off the hand of an east Alabama deputy sheriff trying to arrest him is being described as a minister who started a church and sang gospel music with his family.

The Rev Curtis Watts helped build Shining Light Baptist Church in Clay County, and an obituary says he performed with his family as the Watts Family Singers. 

Sherriff’s officials say Watts swung an ax while being arrested on a charge stemming from domestic violence allegations and cut off the right hand of Jason Freeman, a sergeant with the Clay County Sheriff’s Department.

Freeman’s hand was later surgically reattached.

Women with knife shot dead by police

CA MODESTO – Police shot to death a woman on an elementary school playground after she came on to campus with a large knife, according to the Modesto Police Department. No students or staff at Catherine Everett Elementary School were injured in the incident, police said. Police have not released the woman’s name, but they described her as a white woman in her 50s. She was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to Modesto police  Sgt. Brian Findlen.

Good Samaritan stabbed with keys

VT WILDER – Police say a Good Samaritan who stopped at what he thought was a car accident ended up getting stabbed in the hand by a man who had just rammed his wife’s car. The Barre Times Argus reports that Thomas Bleeks of Norwich was heading home from work when he came upon two cars stopped on an Interstate 91 on-ramp. He told police he saw a man assaulting a woman in one of the cars, and when he reached in to stop him, was stabbed in the hand with a set of keys. Alexey Mameav, 22, of Quechee was charged with drunken driving, domestic assault and five other charges.

3 sentenced in slaying of Walmart worker

NH – NOTH HAVERHILL, Three friends who played part in the killing of a developmentally disabled Walmart cashier in New Hampshire are going to prison. Timothy Smith, Anthony Howe and Amber Talbot pleaded guilty earlier this year conspiracy and second-degree murder in the death of Christopher Gray, 25, of Groton, Vt. Prosecutors say Gray was killed for taking a romantic interest in Talbot. She was the girlfriend of defendant Michael Robie. Gray was stabbed more than 30 times in October 2008. Smith and Howe were sentenced to 25 to 50 years. Robie has admitted orchestrating the attack from his jail cell. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Loophole lets mentally ill juveniles go free

TX TYLER – a 16-year-old former juvenile detainee is accused of stabbing a high school teacher to death with a buther knife. Another teen was convicted of killing a roofer during a robbery spree. Both were released by the Texas Youth Commission because the agency wasn’t equipped to treat their mental illnesses and had to let them go under the law. The commission has released more than 200 offenders because of mental health issues in the last five years and that more than one-fifth went on to commit new crimes, some of them violent.

MILITARY BASE STABBING

December 2009, soldier stabbed to death in Afghanistan.