JUNE 22, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
June 22 is … National Chocolate Éclair Day
Happy birthday Lucas; good health and prosperity always.
I missed this item on June 20, 2011. Sorry about that. I like to keep abreast of infamous murders. On this day, June 20, in 1893, a jury at New Bedford Superior Court proclaimed Lizzie Borden “not guilty” of murdering her father and stepmother.
In other crime news, more current in nature, over the weekend four people were killed execution style in a New York Pharmacy. A gunman shot four people inside a pharmacy in a New York suburb Sunday morning, killing everyone inside the store in what police said looked like a robbery gone wrong.
In other crime news, more current in nature, over the weekend four people were killed execution style in a New York Pharmacy. A gunman shot four people inside a pharmacy in a New York suburb Sunday morning, killing everyone inside the store in what police said looked like a robbery gone wrong.
The massacre happened at about 10:20 a.m. inside a family-owned pharmacy in a small cluster of medical offices in Medford, a middle-class hamlet on Long Island about 60 miles east of New York City. Police rushed to the scene after getting a 911 call from someone in the pharmacy's parking lot. When they arrived, they found two employees and two customers dead, said Suffolk County Police Department's Chief of Detectives Dominick Varrone. No one inside the shop survived. Suffolk County Police identified the dead employees as Raymond Ferguson, 45, of Centereach, and Jennifer Mejia, 17, of East Patchogue. Bryon Sheffield, 71, of Medford, and Jamie Taccetta, a 33-year-old woman from Farmingville, were identified as the two customers.
Rene Mejia, of Medford, said one of the victims was his daughter, Jennifer. He said she worked part-time at the pharmacy while attending Bellport High School, where she was finishing her senior year. "I don't know what happened," he said. "She was supposed to graduate Thursday." The pharmacy, Haven Drugs, had opened for business at 10 a.m., and Varrone said investigators' initial belief was that a single gunman was responsible for the bloodbath, and that the motive was robbery. Just how the shooting unfolded, and why, were unclear, he said. Police said the suspect was armed with a handgun and stole prescription drugs from the pharmacy before fleeing with a black backpack. No suspects were in custody. A call left for the man listed in state records as the pharmacy's owner and chief pharmacist, Vinoda Kudchadkar, wasn't immediately returned. Police had the streets around the pharmacy blocked off with crime tape. Officers could be seen scanning the ground for evidence, and as of late afternoon the bodies had yet to be removed.
Two teens, who said they were classmates of Mejia, came to the scene after hearing about the shooting from friends on Facebook. "She was a walking angel on earth," said Kimberly Jimenez, 18, of Brookhaven. "She gave me a bracelet and said God would watch out for me, Jimenez said."Why couldn't God watch out for her?" Another classmate, Taylor Lee, 17, of East Patchogue, described Mejia as a "very holy girl." "She was truly one of God's angels," Lee said. News of the shootings stunned neighbors, who said they heard the commotion after police arrived, but saw nothing of the crime.
"It's absolutely crazy. There are no words," said Scott Radice, who lives four houses up the street from Haven Drugs and said he has been a customer for 15 years. "I'm hoping they had cameras in the pharmacy so they can catch this guy." "This is a family business. Everyone goes there. It is our neighborhood pharmacy," said neighbor Kathy Culhane. "If you had a problem with prescriptions, he'd go to bat for you," she said of the owner, who wasn't at the pharmacy when the shooting happened.
This story got me thinking about similar mass killings I am aware of over the last two decades or so. I lived in Bloomington-Normal during my formative years. A mass killing occurred at a liquor store where the four or five victims were shot execution style. Around the same time, also in Bloomington, IL, a family of a mother and her children were killed. The father was charged with the murders but after several years he was exonerated. Both of these crimes remain unsolved.
A couple of years ago, in a southern suburb of Chicago, Tinley Park, five people were killed in a Lane Bryant Department store. This crime remains unsolved. In Palatine, IL during the early 1990s, seven people were killed at a Brown’s Chicken store. That crime was eventually solved but it took about fifteen years.
These are just a few mass murders I am aware of or that happened relatively close to where I lived. It is said a murderer makes ten mistakes or more in the hour leading up to a murder and in the first hour after the murder. It is also said three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead. How do these mass murders remain unsolved? The mass murders that are solved are quite often solved because the killer commits suicide, surrenders or just does not care. We need to relax a few of the rules on police who are investigating a mass murder. The criminal does not have rules, why do the police in these type of situations?
Just a couple of thoughts I had and you should too.
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
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Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase any of my books. The books are interesting and inexpensive reads. My third book should be available later this year, in late 2011. More information will be forthcoming.
www.ebookmall.com (Do search by my name or book Title)
www.barnesandnoble.com (do a quick search, Title, my name)
www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search.
Book Titles:
Holmes the Ripper
A Revengeful Mix of Short Fiction
"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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