Boy Fired Bottle Rockets Into Traffic - Killed While Fleeing Angry Driver

[matcom]

<snip>

SPANAWAY, Wash. -- A 12-year-old boy who was firing bottle rockets at cars was chased into traffic Friday by an angry driver and killed by another car, authorities said.

The driver and his passenger, both 22, were arrested for investigation of manslaughter, the Washington State Patrol said.

The death came soon after midnight in this small town south of Tacoma, where the preteen and a 12-year-old cousin had been hiding in bushes while shooting the bottle rockets, trooper Johnny R. Alexander said.

A car stopped, and passenger Tyrone Sherrod got out, chased the cousin and started beating him, Alexander said. The driver, Mario N. Haley, chased the other boy, who ran onto the highway and was struck by a car driven by a 17-year-old girl.

Both men fled, but police found them at homes. Investigators determined the girl was not at fault.

Witnesses unsuccessfully tried to revive the boy struck by the car. His cousin was treated for injuries and released to his parents.

http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/4729041/detail.html

[madeline_con]

1. "... released to his parents..."

Whose fault is this?

Supervise your kids, and teach them not to be delinquents, because it can lead to tragedy.

Shooting bottle rockets into traffic...

[intrepid_wanderer]

2. the parents should have been doing a little beating...

... complete and utter ' ' total disrespect for rules, laws, & elders... and it's not the parents fault... oh no... couldn't be


FLARGIN B.S.!!!!!

:bounce:

[madeline_con]

12. "... and it's not the parents fault..."

Those poor babies, turned loose to wreak havoc.

Before something like this happens, smart people say, "Don't do that! Somebody could get killed!"

[RC]

3. All these kids out after midnight?

[madeline_con]

11. They should have been home,

shooting bottle rockets at their parents' cars.

[MadAsHell]

4. Let me see if I have this straight ...

A twelve year old deserved to die because he fired some bottle rockets into traffic...

There is nothing in this story about these kids being "delinguents". Once in while kids do stupid stuff. At that age, short of physical abuse, no matter how hard you press down with your thumb there is no way to keep them under it. And yes you should know where your children and what they are doing but once in while your back is turned and lapses in judgement happen. Whether it is a two year old sticking a fork in a outlet, a six year old riding their bike into the street, or a twelve year old shooting fireworks at cars, kids do stupid stuff and the best you can hope as a parent is that life will not impose the death penality for the first offense.

And that a couple of testosterone addled brains don't chase them into street to die.

So do these parents deserve to go to a funeral because of this?

[hobbit709]

6. I would have been beat

if I'd even THOUGHT about leaving the house and being out after midnight at that age. If you're driving along and a bottle rocket suddenly blew up in your car and caused a wreck would you call that innocent too?

[sybylla]

8. Where is the word "innocent" used?

Stupid, yes. Malicious, possibly. But I agree with MAH, hardly deserving of a death by road rage.

And I would have been beat had I been caught out at that age after midnight, too. But that didn't stop my friend and me from sneaking out of her house and walking all over town - well past midnight in spite of curfew laws. It was a stupid thing to do, but I came out of it unscathed and never did it again.

This young man doesn't have the opportunity to learn from his mistakes. Someone arbitrarily took that away from him for what?

Probably because the chaser had the attitude that all kids are hooligans out to rape and pillage in the name of fun and must be punished to the nines for everything they do and their parents should be locked up for not keeping them locked in their bedrooms. I bet that's it.

[madeline_con]

13. "...doesn't have the opportunity to learn from his mistakes..."

I wonder if the parents learned from theirs.

[sybylla]

16. And what was their mistake?

Not locking the kid in his room? Not putting bars on his windows? Letting him have windows in the first place? Not putting fingerprint security locks on the front and back doors? Heck, what were they thinking even letting him have friends? I can see now that they should have chopped his feet off when he was a baby. Then he couldn't go gallavanting around the countryside terrorizing innocent people like that.

As it sounds like you know these people personally and were seemingly there when this all happened, perhaps you can enlighten us as to what, exactly, the mistake is that the parents made.

[madeline_con]

22. No. Simply...

not supervising him and knowing his whereabouts after midnight.

It's their job as parents, and they screwed up.

[MadAsHell]

15. I didn't say innocent ...

I said stupid. I can tell you if my child did something like this they would understand that it was anything but innocent.


And to the thread in general and not to hobbit709 thoughts ...


But I don't think, based on this fine piece of journalism, we have near enough information to conclude that the parents where negligent or the kids where menaces or even that "a couple of testosterone addled brains" where entirely to blame, as I myself alluded to earlier.

All I know from this is a bed will be empty, a living room wall will never get another school picture, and that is pain enough for any parent to bare without the second guessing of people who can't possible know.

[hobbit709]

19. I didn't say

The kid deserved to die. There was plenty of stupid all the way around. The kids for doing it, the guys for chasing them, etc. I was just saying that sometimes you do something stupid enough and the penalty catches up with you. I know people that were killed just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time-no fault of their own at all. I did enough stupid things when I was young too and more than once I was just lucky that I wasn't killed.

[madeline_con]

9. I didn't say he deserved to die.

It's the parents' job to know whether he's shooting bottle rockets into traffic.

"So do these parents deserve to go to a funeral because of this?"

They wouldn't be going if they'd been supervising him.

[RummyTheDummy]

23. Sitting around the house tipping some beer

Or even smoking a joint, or maybe engaging in a sex at that age is "stupid stuff", depending on your point of view. Shooting bottle rockets into traffic and endangering the lives of others is fucking stupid. Nobody is saying the kid deserved to die. WTF do you get that from the above comments? But what he did was just plain dangerous to OTHER people. They should have known better. Period.

[LisaL]

24. The boy doesn't deserve to die, but I doubt the guy who chased

after him wanted to kill him either.

[hobbit709]

5. Sometimes

the penalty for stupid catches up with you.
"Stupidity is the only universal capital crime. and sentence is carried out immediately, with no hope of appeal." R.A.H.

[Mutley]

7. Those kids had no business shooting fireworks at cars

but those ADULTS had no business beating one and chasing the other into the street to die. Why didn't he call the cops? That is what they are here for, to take care of things like this before someone dies. I think EVERYONE is at fault here: the kids for doing this, the parents for not making sure their kids are at home, but mostly that moron who decided to take the law in his own hands instead of calling the cops.

[madeline_con]

14. "I think EVERYONE is at fault here ..."

I agree, except for "but mostly that moron who decided to take the law in his own hands ..."

It wasn't the moron's job to dole out punishment, but the parents to make sure they didn't have the kind of stupid kid who pulls s#it like this, pisses off morons and is consequently in mortal danger.

[Shell Beau]

10. Who is to blame?

We shouldn't automatically jump to find someone to blame. This is an unfortunate situation where it seems the fault lies in several places. I feel for the 17 year old girl who hit the boy. I feel for the parents of this little boy. Even if they weren't supervised, these parents must be hurting. I feel for the families of the other boys who were hitting these kids. It is sad all the way around.

[Zomby Woof]

17. I feel bad for the 17 year old girl

She will live with this the rest of her life, even as it was rightly concluded it wasn't her fault.

Knowing Spanaway, this story isn't as surprising as one would hope.

[RevolutionaryActs]

21. I was just thinking that.

That poor girl. :(

[Coventina]

18. Those kids could have killed someone!

But the adults should have called the cops, rather than trying to chase the kids down. And then leaving the scene? :wtf:
They're lucky they are only being charged with manslaughter.

I feel sorry for the 17 year old girl. She'll be scarred for life.

Tragedy all around.

At the age of 12 it would have NEVER occurred to me to sneak out of the house and shoot bottle rockets at cars. Something is/was seriously wrong with those kids.

[RedCloud]

20. Why did the boy run into traffic? Couldn't he have evaded them?

How do they know that the driver chased him into oncoming traffic? It sounds like the boy went from a very bad decision to a fatal one. Maybe the kid would have done the same thing if the police had gotten there.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. Well it doesn't sound like

any of these kids involved is the sharpest knife in the drawer. Too bad the kid was killed. But just how stupid do you have to be to shoot bottle rockets at cars?

We did some stupid and dangerous things when I was a kid, but this one never even entered my mind.