| Article Of The Day
Man with assault rifle shoots three in Bedford-Stuyvesant; one deadUpdated Tuesday, July 7th 2009, 1:25 PM The gunman, apparently bent on revenge after an earlier scuffle, strolled into a lobby in the Risley Dent Towers in Bed-Stuy and fired several shots at the friends just before 11:30 p.m. Monday night, police said. "It was like a war," said a sobbing Mona Lisa Williams, 38, sporting a pair of oversized Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses to shield her eyes. "I stepped off the elevator and walked outside and it was like a warzone."Rasheed Craig, 20, was shot in the chest and collapsed in a pool of blood on the floor. Craig, who also used the last name Geist, died a short time later at Kings County Hospital."Everytime a gunshot went off there was this huge light," Williams added. "And then Rasheed ran up to me and said 'Mona Lisa, I got shot' and when he lifted up his arms there was blood everywhere."Standing outside the scene of the grizzly crime, near steps still splattered with blood, Craig's distraught older sister, Rashenya, said: "Everybody knows what goes on here. How many times I have to tell him about coming over here? And now my brother's got to die?""What can anybody say to us? 'I'm sorry?'," she added."My brother lost his life. This is too much."A makeshift memorial was set up outside the housing project with candles and balloons where loved ones wrote messages to the dead teen. Blinking back tears, one of Craig's lifelong pals said the victim had been excited to celebrate his 21st birthday Wednesday."I lost a part of me," said Mark Anthony, 21. "I was hysterical."Craig's cousin David Geist, 19, was hit once in the torso and was in critical condition after several hours of surgery, his family said."I knew they were good children," said family friend Lisa Smith, 30. "Everyone scattered but they couldn't scatter fast enough. Everyone's distraught. Everyone is heartbroken."A third man, Robert Harris, 22, who also went by the name Robert Holt, was hit in the thigh and was in stable condition.Investigators believe the group had been in a fight earlier Monday, possibly over a woman, and the shooting was meant as payback, a police source said. All three victims have previous arrest records, sources said.A dozen shell casings were found in the blood-stained lobby and several nearby windows were blown out by the high-powered bullets.No arrests have been made.
Please Help Us Put A Stop To This!!You may comment on this article or inform us of others via blog here.
| | "CEASE FIRE" CAN WE BE REAL PLEASE?!!! Guns in America are our own domestic version of weapons of mass desturction. The mainstream economy benefits solely from the underground violence that partakes the streets, schools and the rural and suburban areas. Gun violence is no longer selective or isolated to one area. We are extremely tired of the N.R.A. nationally led legislation that only the gun companies benefit from. We feel there is a need for gun reform laws that are not passive but active in the result department. It's time to hold the gun companies responsible. They give reckless gun dealers the permits to irresponsibly distribute firearms. We all know there is no limit to the number of guns that can be purchased for any one individual. The temptation is there for anyone with a clean criminal history. A clean record allows one the right to buy guns like apples at a supermarket. All that's needed is a very good fake ID. I hate to say it, but the real criminals have no criminal record. The record comes after the fact. The only thing that limits the amount of guns purchased is running out of funds. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that will never happen with this nation's drug habits and the crime rate that's frightening the citizens of this country. The issue of stolen identities leads to the problem of those who purchase guns that cannot be traced. These guns are then funneled into the wrong hands at bargain basement prices. The object being to make money from the stoles credit cards. However, that object leads to lost lives. The only one who pays for these actions is the actual shooter. No one else involved is held accountable. We have many suggestions to this problem and with the help of the people they can be heard loudly and clearly!!! Comment Of The Day Ownership of guns is not the problem. It's the irresponsibility of the manufactures, sellers and owners that is literally killing people. Where does it end? | | Audio and Written Testimony If you wish to share your story you may do so by calling us at (888) 330-3734. At extension 30 you can either leave a message requesting a return phone call or record your story there. We will return all phone calls within 48 hours and reserve the right to be selective. Audio testimonies are changed randomly. Your may also submit a written testimony via email or fax. Our fax number is:(718) 379-0477. Help someone understand the importance of demanding that a change be made. Feel free to submit pictures to go with your written or verbal testimonies via email or fax as well. Hello, I am a 42 year old female and I lost my brother 14 years ago due to gun violence. It was murder in the first degree and he was one of two victims. Three families were destroyed because of this incident because two lost a family member to death and one lost a family member to prison. The shooter in this incident is due to be released from prison already. He will be allowed to walk the streets again after taking two lives. I will never see my brother again but I have to look in the face of the man who took his life. How do I deal with this? KC Chaplin If you would like to respond to Jasmine, please do so through our blog on this page or by our contact us link. STATS Click On This Link for Audio Feed Regarding the rise in number of children killed by gun violence. (courtesy of NPR) AUDIO Step up and Take Action!
Tell Congress to enact common sense gun safety measures.
According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3,006 children and teens were killed by firearms in 2005, the first increase since 1994 and the first rise in gun deaths since Congress allowed the Assault Weapons Ban to expire in 2004.
When 32 people were killed at Virginia Tech and five at Northern Illinois University, the public was outraged. Yet every four days we have the equivalent of a Virginia Tech tragedy that passes unnoticed. Our gun violence epidemic robs parents of their children, wastes our human potential, and drains resources from our health care system.
What is it going to take for us to stop this senseless loss of young lives? We need to ensure that those we elect to public office enact legislation that will really protect children by limiting the number of guns in our communities, controlling who can obtain firearms and the conditions of their use. Individuals and communities must act to end the culture of violence that desensitizes us, young and old, to the value of life.
We cannot allow these shots to go unheard. Our children and our society deserve no less.
The number of children and teens in America killed by guns in 2005 would fill 120 public school classrooms of 25 students each.
In 2005, 69 preschoolers were killed by firearms compared to 53 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.
Since 1979, gun violence has snuffed out the lives of 104,419 children and teens in America. Sixty percent of them were White; 37 percent were Black.
The number of Black children and teens killed by gunfire since 1979 is more than 10 times the number of Black citizens of all ages lynched in American history.
The number of children and teens killed by guns since 1979 would fill 4,177 public school classrooms of 25 students each.
 | |