As man died, witnesses turned away

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2003-02-16 10:39pm

http://www.msnbc.com/news/873184.asp?0cv=CB20

As man died, witnesses turned away
D.C. surveillance tape records indifference to killing

By David A. Fahrenthold
THE WASHINGTON POST

Feb. 15 — D.C. police released a startling surveillance tape yesterday that shows a daylight killing at a Northeast Washington gas station and witnesses doing nothing to report the crime or tend to the victim as he lay bleeding on the concrete.

THE VIDEOTAPE, from the Hess station in the 500 block of Florida Avenue, shows in gruesome detail the Jan. 31 slaying of Allen E. Price, 43, of the 2100 block of Fourth Street NW. Police said they were shocked by the apathy of those who were there, including one man who continued pumping kerosene after looking briefly at Price’s body.

At a time when homicide detectives are struggling to solve cases, police officials said the tape depicts the astounding levels of meanness and indifference they confront on the city’s streets. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, police and prosecutors watched numerous cases collapse as witnesses were shot or intimidated. In this instance, several people at the gas station did not appear to be frightened but seemed not to care after the shot was fired and the gunman ran.

“That’s just one of the worst things I’ve ever seen,” Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey declared yesterday after screening the tape at police headquarters. “There just aren’t words to describe something like that.”
The shooting happened quickly and with no apparent warning near the large Florida Avenue market complex, in a crime-ridden area just blocks from Gallaudet University. The snippet of color videotape that police released — taken by a camera positioned atop the gas station — begins at 9:08 a.m., with traffic passing steadily on the avenue and several cars in view at the station.

At 9:09 a.m., the shooter appears at a distance, walking up Sixth Street on the far side of Florida Avenue. He appears to be a man in a black coat, but the image is blurry. He weaves through traffic on Florida Avenue and appears to run the last few feet toward the kerosene pump where Price was standing. Police have analyzed the video frame by frame, and Ramsey provided a running commentary, stating: “Boom! That’s the gunshot.”

Price then drops from view, and the gunman runs back across the Florida Avenue and disappears from sight.

PUMPING KEROSENE

A homicide lieutenant said yesterday that the killer is believed to have
targeted Price. Police have announced no motive or suspects.
After the shooting, one witness — who was just feet away from the gunman — looked for a moment at Price’s body and then turned away. Not only did he finish pumping his kerosene, but the man paid for the purchase and drove off, giving the camera its clearest look at Price lying by the pump. Police have not found that customer.

For the next few minutes, the camera records a series of cars pulling away from the station, with at least one new car pulling up to the kerosene pump where Price lay. But it is not until about 9:13, more than three minutes after the shooting, that the gas station’s manager is seen approaching the body.

The manager, Philip Donkor, said yesterday that he did not hear the gunshot from his bulletproof booth and was not aware of the shooting until a customer told him. He said he found Price on his back.

“He’s dead. His eyes open. His mouth open,” Donkor said. “Right then, I saw that he was dead.”

Police said that someone in the area finally flagged down a police car, and it arrived about seven minutes after the shooting.

The first 911 call was not made until 9:36 a.m., but police did not reveal who made it. Donkor said he tried to call 911 immediately after he was told about the shooting but got a recording and hung up.

Ramsey has been criticized by D.C. Council members and others for rising homicide totals and for homicide clearance rates that are lower than the average for other cities. The chief has contended that witnesses who could help police get killers off the streets do not come forward.

“This is the kind of thing that we’re up against,” Ramsey said. “To have someone walk by as if nothing occurred is frustrating.”

U.S. Attorney Roscoe C. Howard Jr. echoed that complaint, saying that relatively few slayings in the District occur in secluded spots. But witnesses simply won’t come forward, he said, adding, “If you’ve got 262 murders in a year, and you’re not able to solve half of them,” reluctant witnesses must be an issue.

‘VERY WRONG AND CALLOUS’

Still, former D.C. police chief Isaac Fulwood Jr., who oversaw the department when crack cocaine led to a surge in killings in the late 1980s and early 1990s, said the reaction to Price’s death amazed him.

“Something’s wrong, I mean, something’s very wrong and callous, and [it] is getting worse,” Fulwood said.

Julia Dunkins, chief executive of Survivors of Homicide Inc., said people from across the city have become desensitized to death. “We have to stop saying, ‘My community isn’t like this. This kind of thing could not happen in my area,’ ” Dunkins said.

Louis R. Mizell Jr., a security consultant who maintains a 40,000-category database on crimes, said similar episodes have unfolded throughout the country.

“We record hundreds of cases nationwide each year in which people witnessed horrible crimes but react with depraved indifference, refusing to intervene or even call 911,” Mizell said. “The encouraging news, however, is that we record thousands of cases in which people did get involved, often heroically and at their own peril.”

Along Florida Avenue, other merchants said they were not shocked by the crime or the behavior of the witnesses.

At Coast In Liquors, a clerk said he could remember an attempted robbery two years ago in which a man came after him with a stick and then threw bricks at his windows.

Outside the store, people stopped to watch but did nothing to intervene, he said.

“Nobody [was] trying to help,” said the clerk, who wouldn’t give his name. “They were looking. You know how people do.”

© 2003 The Washington Post Company

**************

Can't fucking blame them. They did what the Government and certain
members on this board wanted them to do:

Comply, comply, comply, don't get involved because you may be
sued, you could suffer retaliation from the perp or his friends, it's
not your business, don't get involved or you may end up a suspect,
don't take the law into your own hands, blah blah

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-02-16 10:44pm

Gah. This is just like that one case where a woman was stabbed to death in the streets at night. At least 38 people could see the murder from their windows but did nothing while the woman was bleeding to death, screaming. They still did nothing when the killer came back to finish the job.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-02-16 10:52pm

Shep, there's a rather large difference between phoning 911 and personally hunting down and killing the perp.

ArmorPierce · Post by **ArmorPierce** » 2003-02-16 10:56pm

I should have known better than to think that you were going to say how the people that did nothing were in the wrong giving how you hate the police and all.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2003-02-16 11:04pm

ArmorPierce wrote:I should have known better than to think that you were going to say how the people that did nothing were in the wrong giving how you hate the police and all.

Intervening to help someone in DC is just not worth it. You get bogged
down in all kinds of red tape. God help you if you lay a hand on the perp.

I'd have done the same thing if I was in their position. Simply looked, filled
my car up and gone on my merry way.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-02-16 11:12pm

Fortunately, nobody used guns! That would have been terrible. They might have tried to take the law into their own hands. And it's a really fortunate thing the victim didn't have a gun. God knows what might have happened then. Fortunately, there weren't any guns. Nope, no guns at all. Well, none except for the perp. Remember kids, it's bad when law abiding citizens have guns.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-02-16 11:19pm

Shinova wrote:Gah. This is just like that one case where a woman was stabbed to death in the streets at night. At least 38 people could see the murder from their windows but did nothing while the woman was bleeding to death, screaming. They still did nothing when the killer came back to finish the job.

Kitty Genovese, 1968, Stabbed & Raped in the courtyard of her apartment building. Actually a group of her neighbors made pop-corn and watched.
Allowed to just lie there for half an hour pleading for assistance before her killer came back and finished her off.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-02-16 11:21pm

MKSheppard wrote:
ArmorPierce wrote:I should have known better than to think that you were going to say how the people that did nothing were in the wrong giving how you hate the police and all.
Intervening to help someone in DC is just not worth it. You get bogged
down in all kinds of red tape. God help you if you lay a hand on the perp.

I'd have done the same thing if I was in their position. Simply looked, filled
my car up and gone on my merry way.

at least your honest.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-02-16 11:21pm

Oh, that's absolute bullshit, Red.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2003-02-16 11:26pm

To be honest Shep is right, it's just not worth it to risk your life and inconvenience yourself with the assinine laws and shit they have in place these days. Break up a fight and before you know it you're in jail for assault and you're paying damages to the perp. Report a murder and you get tied up with enough paperwork, court time, and other stuff to ruin your life, that is if the perps don't shoot you first. I can't blame them, these people can't afford having their lives disrupted or ruined.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-02-16 11:30pm

o_O helping a man survive gunshots is illegal?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-02-16 11:32pm

Excuse me, but you don't have to give your identity to report an incident to 911!!!!! These fuckers should have picked up the goddamned phone. There is no excuse.

Tragic · Post by **Tragic** » 2003-02-16 11:34pm

What did ya'll expect the witness to do run up to the killer and tell him stop when he has a gun??? Or rush him and try and get the gun out his hands??

I Heard it took them like 30 minutes to call the cops. That was wrong and the guy just leaving like that. it was wrong also.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-02-16 11:35pm

Darth Wong wrote:Excuse me, but you don't have to give your identity to report an incident to 911!!!!! These fuckers should have picked up the goddamned phone. There is no excuse.

The only excuse is that none of them has a heart.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-02-16 11:36pm

But we do ask you a lot of questions so that we know what the fuck the paramedics and police are getting into. (Remember I paid my way through college by working for Fire & Emergency Dispatch at night)

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-02-16 11:39pm

Tragic wrote:What did ya'll expect the witness to do run up to the killer and tell him stop when he has a gun??? Or rush him and try and get the gun out his hands??

I Heard it took them like 30 minutes to call the cops. That was wrong and the guy just leaving like that. it was wrong also.

I only expect the suicidal to attack an armed man. but they could call 911 - I dont suppose the killer stayed around to stop them.

Post by **Kuja** » 2003-02-16 11:51pm

If you don't want the paperwork and you don't want to get shot, wait til the bad guy leaves, then call up 911 and leave the station. Simple, yet elegant.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-02-16 11:51pm

An interesting thing that Sociologists have noticed is that the more people witness a crime, the less chance there is it will be reported. There was a famous incident of this in New York in which a man attacked a women three different times before killing her. Over 40 witnesses observed or heard the altercation and not one single person got involved or even called police. A great many of them felt this was a relationship conflict and that it was not their position to stop the husband from stabbing the wife multiple times.

The same principle applies to car break downs. If your car breaks down, you have a greater chance of having assistance rendered sooner when there is less traffic on the road. When there are more people, each person who passes you simply thinks "Well I don't need to bother, someone else will take care of it."

Apply this to the two incidents at hand. "I don't need to call 911, someone else will". This is a pattern that Police agencies want to break. They want you to call 911 even if you believe that dozens of people have reported the event before you.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-02-16 11:54pm

This reminds me that if you're in a situation where you need help and you're in a crowd, you NEVER scream "somebody call 911". Instead, you look squarely at one of the witnesses, point at him, and say "YOU! Call 911". A police officer once explained this many years ago when I was in school.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-02-16 11:59pm

RedImperator wrote:Fortunately, nobody used guns! That would have been terrible. They might have tried to take the law into their own hands. And it's a really fortunate thing the victim didn't have a gun. God knows what might have happened then. Fortunately, there weren't any guns. Nope, no guns at all. Well, none except for the perp. Remember kids, it's bad when law abiding citizens have guns.

Oh, yeah, terrible terrible guns. They kill people, and do absolutely no good! Thank goodness that person or a witness didn't shoot the son of a gun doing the killing!

Post by **Kuja** » 2003-02-16 11:59pm

Darth Wong wrote:This reminds me that if you're in a situation where you need help and you're in a crowd, you NEVER scream "somebody call 911". Instead, you look squarely at one of the witnesses, point at him, and say "YOU! Call 911". A police officer once explained this many years ago when I was in school.

Yes. It's because people in a tense situation love to be given something to do. Not only does the one sleected feel better because they have a job, everyone else feels better because someone is taking care of things.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-02-17 12:00am

Darth Wong wrote:This reminds me that if you're in a situation where you need help and you're in a crowd, you NEVER scream "somebody call 911". Instead, you look squarely at one of the witnesses, point at him, and say "YOU! Call 911". A police officer once explained this many years ago when I was in school.

Along the same line, when you are being attacked you should do everything you can to make it seem like a stranger is attacking you. The more your pleas for help sound like the person attacking you is related or is your significant other, the less likely people will help you.

beyond hope · Post by **beyond hope** » 2003-02-17 12:01am

And people wonder why I want to move out of this area so badly...

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-02-17 12:04am

NF_Utvol wrote:
RedImperator wrote:Fortunately, nobody used guns! That would have been terrible. They might have tried to take the law into their own hands. And it's a really fortunate thing the victim didn't have a gun. God knows what might have happened then. Fortunately, there weren't any guns. Nope, no guns at all. Well, none except for the perp. Remember kids, it's bad when law abiding citizens have guns.
Oh, yeah, terrible terrible guns. They kill people, and do absolutely no good! Thank goodness that person or a witness didn't shoot the son of a gun doing the killing!

Whatever happened to the idea of shooting someone in a non-lethal place, like, say, the kneecaps or arm? Or is that outlawed now?

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2003-02-17 12:09am

Crayz9000 wrote:
NF_Utvol wrote:
RedImperator wrote:Fortunately, nobody used guns! That would have been terrible. They might have tried to take the law into their own hands. And it's a really fortunate thing the victim didn't have a gun. God knows what might have happened then. Fortunately, there weren't any guns. Nope, no guns at all. Well, none except for the perp. Remember kids, it's bad when law abiding citizens have guns.
Oh, yeah, terrible terrible guns. They kill people, and do absolutely no good! Thank goodness that person or a witness didn't shoot the son of a gun doing the killing!
Whatever happened to the idea of shooting someone in a non-lethal place, like, say, the kneecaps or arm? Or is that outlawed now?

Strictly the province of action movies. Anybody shooting for the kneecaps or arm is more likely to hurt an innocent bystander than the person they were shooting at. If you want to hit a target, you aim for the center of mass. Period.