This Sunday morning, I paged through the A section, Metro, Sports and Business sections in the time it took my husband to smoke a cigarette (Thank you, Marlboro, for sending him so many discount coupons. Will you help pay for the coffin, too?). Then we were off to stand in line at Circuit City in hopes of getting one of the 17 Wiis in stock. Actually, I have to thank the T-D for that, providing the Sunday sales flyers early enough in the morning for us to figure out where we had to be to spend money on something we don't really need. I'm trying to help the economy here, but it may be the Japanese economy.
There was no big story in the paper about the Byrd Park killers, one of whom I assume was still on the loose that morning. If I were the editor, the police sketch would have been prominently on the front page every day until this kid is caught. This was a terrible crime and a gut-wrenching story. The 19-year-old victim, in his last moments which must have been terrifying, knew that if he and his girlfriend got in the trunk of the car -- as the assailants ordered -- neither would survive the night, and she'd probably be raped before being shot. He said no, they weren't going to do it, and then they took off. That decision cost him his life (which he was going to lose anyway so these two killer kids could go joyriding in a car), but it saved hers, and there must be a special place in heaven for people like that.
It reminded me of the Harveys' tragic situation. Mrs. Harvey had a window of opportunity to take her oldest daughter and flee the house when the friend came to the door, but to do so meant she was knowingly risking her husband and youngest daughter's lives, leaving them behind. But in the end, everyone was killed. If she had run when she had a chance, two could have survived. (Maybe that would have been a decision too difficult to live with. Or maybe the killers, thinking she had gone for help, may have fled without killing anyone. Who knows?)
This story weighed heavily on me all weekend for the many times I've read about women abducted from mall parking lots. Even if the assailant has a weapon, it just seems your chances are better if you don't go with them. In this case, I feel the result was one victim instead of what surely would have been two, abandoned somewhere in the woods and not found for weeks, or maybe never found. And for what? To carjack a vehicle? Who raised those dimwits? The parents ought to be locked up, too.
Anyway, was the Sunday paper full of any of this? No. There was a short story about the girl who survived in Saturday's paper. The T-D was more enthralled with the I-64 shooters, who were a) white (I don't know if that means anything, but I'm just saying), b) didn't kill anyone, c) are both apprehended, and d) none of this story happened in Richmond.
I don't get it. To me, the Byrd Park story, with one kid still loose, is a much bigger story. People live in that area, use the tennis courts, walk around Carytown in the evening. I checked the T-D website just now (9:30 on Sunday night) and it's still enthralled with the I-64 shooter, who is in custody. Where's the police sketch of the wanted kid? We don't need to keep seeing the photo of the shooter already apprehended.
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Here's another story that didn't get much press.
http://www.nbc12.com/news/state/16990866.html
This is the text ATR is linking to since it'll be taken down by WWBT soon.
A Chesterfield family is safe all thanks to a Richmond Times-Dispatch paper carrier. During his morning route, he rescued the family out of their burning home on Laurel Oak Road. At one point, going inside himself to save a toddler.
Mike Williams is that paper carrier. He's a retired New York police officer and he was also in the navy. He says all that training helped him do the right thing.
The family says he's a hero.
"I'm just thankful we are all alive," says Jennifer Poniatowski. The mother still can't believe her family is all alive and together. She says she owes it all to a man who delivers the morning paper to the neighborhood.
She says, "It's a miracle, it's an angel, it was God looking over me and my kids. Two minutes later and I wouldn't have a baby, I might not even be here talking to you."
Paper carrier Williams says as he drove by this house around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, the fire exploded from the front window. He immediately stopped and started banging on the front door.
Jennifer and her husband woke up and realized what was going on but were only able to grab one child. That's when they say Williams stepped in.
He rushed into the fiery bedroom and scooped up Jennifer's two-year-old who was already suffering from smoke inhalation.
"I was amazed I just kept telling him, 'Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,'" says Jennifer.
Fire fighters say the family didn't have a working smoke detector because they removed the batteries just a day before because it started chirping. A mistake they say they won't make again and one that was corrected by a guy who happened to be passing by.
"He put his on life in jeopardy to save mine and my kids, I thank him for that, he should be defiantly commended," says Jennifer.
Fire investigators are ruling the fire accidental and believe it started from a possible heater.
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