Attempted murder victim Allison Meadows
Suspect Leon Raymond Walls
Posted by Nicholas Stix
The first story, by incompetent WPXI AA hire, Vince Sims, is a complete botch. In his video report, Sims tries to strategize, to change the “report” from one of “random” violence into one of non-random violence, possibly because “random” is a code for racist, black-on-white violence. All he succeeds in doing is confusing everyone.
Apparently, Walls stabbed one guy, Jobe Wright, on the street. Wright and another man, Tyrique Walker, went into Target looking for Walls, joined by Roland Smith, who helpfully brought a baseball bat. Walker followed Walls into the men’s room, where Walls went after him “with a long, long knife,” chasing him down the aisles. Spying a pretty white girl, 16-year-old Allison Meadows, waiting with her family on a checkout line, Walls apparently decided to murder her, grabbing her by her mane of blonde hair, and stabbing her repeatedly in the torso.
Some men dove in to save Miss Meadows’ life, and Walls sliced them up, but good, chopping two or three fingers from the one man so that they were barely dangling off his hand, and giving the other an additional set of lips. Finally, someone reportedly subdued Walls by pummeling him with a baseball bat that was lying on the ground. (One of the news stations interviewed a man who claimed to have been the baseball bat-wielding hero. The station didn’t show his face, but did show his hand, to let you know he’s black. It’s nice to know there are some black men who will risk life and limb to save a white damsel’s life.)
Allison Meadows’ Christian school, Silverdale Baptist Academy, foolishly gave all the credit to God, instead of the men who risked their lives, and got maimed saving her life. I was about to say that whoever runs Silverdale needs to man up, and do the right thing by the heroes of the story, but then I checked and saw that the headmaster is named Rebecca Hansard, so I guess that’s not an option.
Thanks to reader-researcher Joe for the sendalong.
Vince Sims reporting
Monday, March 25, 2013, 6:02 p.m.; updated: Tuesday, March 26, 2013,11:25 a.m.
WPXI News
EAST LIBERTY, Pa. —
Police have identified the man accused of stabbing three people at a Target store in East Liberty, including a 16-year-old girl who remains hospitalized.
Leon Raymond Walls, 41, is being held in Allegheny County Jail, unable to post $250,000 bond.
Investigators said Walls ran into the Penn Avenue store about 5:30 p.m. Monday after a fight nearby. [No; he ran into the store after stabbing a man outside. That’s not a fight.] They said he slashed two men [Does this refer to two men in the store, or the two men he had stabbed outside?] and stabbed and seriously injured the girl, Allison Meadows. [Sims has the order backwards.]
According to police, Meadows remains in serious condition with cuts to the back and arm.
Authorities said two men followed Walls into the store searching for him. Walls then allegedly ran toward the checkout lanes and grabbed Meadows, who was standing with family members.
The two injured males were taken to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital for treatment. Their names have not been released.
Tyrique Walker told Channel 11’s Vince Sims that he saw Walls outside the store.
“I saw this guy walk past a group of older gentlemen swinging a knife,” Walker said. “I walked up to the Target and saw him go inside. So I went up to a security guard and told them a guy who stabbed someone outside was in the store.
[Are the old guys the ones Walls stabbed? This “reporter” seems to have gone out of his way to be as unclear as possible.]
[Female] Target employee Marquis Thorn told Sims she was inside the store during all of the commotion.
“We were in the back of the store and people started coming from the front screaming. A lady screamed, ‘There’s a man up there trying to stab people, so stay in the back.’” Target employee Marquis Thorn said. “I went back into the employee room and let everybody out the emergency exit.”
Thorn said she was able to safely escape the store as well.
“I saw the people screaming and running, and that was enough for me to get out,” Thorn said. “It’s horrible.”
Investigators said multiple charges are pending against Walls.
Leon Raymond Walls charged with attacking Allison Meadows, who was shopping with family in Penn Avenue department store
Mar 26, 2013, updated 12:32 p.m. EDT
PITTSBURGH —Police said three people -- including a 16-year-old girl who was shopping with her family -- were stabbed inside the East Liberty Target store by a homeless man who was wanted by the U.S. Marshals Service for an unspecified probation violation.
[Since when does the U.S. Marshals Service hunt someone for a “probation violation”? What was he on probation for—first degree murder? Don’t laugh. In recent years in Harris County, Texas, 100 killers have been convicted of first-degree murder have been sentenced to probation and no prison time.]
Silverdale Baptist Academy in Chattanooga, Tenn., posted a Facebook message that identified the teen as a student, Allison Meadows, and said she had surgery on her arm and back and to restore air to a collapsed lung. This tweet came from Meadows' Twitter account on Monday night: "Hey y'all. This is actually Allison … thank you all so much for your prayers! I will try to get back with you all as soon as I can. ❤ [Heart] Y'all!"
After hearing the actual details of the attack, only God could have saved her life," the school's Facebook post said. "Our job now should be to pray for the Meadows family and Allison, show our love and support, and be there for them should they need us. Praise God that this little girl was being watched over and she we will be back home soon." [Actually, some men saved her, while risking their own lives, and getting sliced up something awful, in the bargain. Give them credit, you damned fools!]
Pittsburgh police said 41-year-old Leon Raymond Walls entered the store on Penn Avenue just after 5:30 p.m. Monday and headed toward the restroom. Shortly after, two men came in looking for him, and one of them followed him into the restroom, where he was chased out by the knife-wielding Walls, police said. (Slideshow: Photos from the scene)
"I took a peek at the top of the steps, and the guy was chasing the dude around with a long, long knife. It was a long, long knife. He was chasing him around through the aisles," a witness told Channel 4 Action News reporter Andrew Del Greco.
According to the criminal complaint, the incident began when Walls stabbed a man named Jobe Wright near a construction site on nearby Highland Avenue. Police said Walls ran down the street toward Penn Circle and into Target, followed by Wright and Tyrique Walker, who called 911 to report their location, and Roland Smith, who grabbed a baseball bat to help Wright.
Once they were all inside the store, "Walls saw Walker and attempted to stab him with a large swing at his neck area," the complaint said. "Walls, missing his target, then moved towards the checkout area at the Target store where he began trying to stab additional victims who were in the store. Walls then grabbed Allison Meadows and held her against her will at knifepoint in one of the checkout lanes to use her as a shield. Victims Hosea Davis, Mike E. Turner, Jobe Wright and Roland Smith attempted to subdue Walls and to free Meadows when they saw him poke the knife into Meadows' back."
A witness told Del Greco, "I went back up the top of the steps, and he had this girl by the top of her hair. He just kept screaming, 'I'll stab her again.' He kept stabbing her. Me and like four or five other guys, they ran and tackled him. He cut the one guy's lip almost off. The other guy's finger was, like, hanging off."
The witness said he grabbed a bat that was on the ground and beat Walls with it, helping to subdue the man until police arrived. "That little girl, he just kept stabbing her. I just couldn't stand there and watch that. You can't stand there and watch that," he said. "It was crazy in there. That was horrible. That was something you don't want to see again, ever." (Raw Video: Witness describes using baseball bat to stop stabbing)
Police said Meadows was taken to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh in critical condition with cuts to her back and arm, while two of the men -- one with a cut to his lip and another with cuts to his fingers -- were taken to UPMC Presbyterian. None of the injuries were believed to be life-threatening. A police officer was treated for pepper spray exposure, and another person was taken to UPMC Shadyside with chest pains, police said.
"The station didn’t show his face, but did show his hand, to let you know he’s black."
ReplyDeleteWhen those high school football players, the ones just convicted of sexual assault, were shown on NBC news when the attack occurred, the news producers digitally blurred the ARM of the Black player. It was so obvious what they did I wondered out loud why they did it.