By Prince George’s County Expat
I experienced something vaguely similar to this, but without the gunfire.
I was in line to check out at a supermarket. The supermarket was located just blocks from my late father's house. This was in Clinton, Maryland, a former whitopia and now ghetto, thanks to a change in demographics.
Directly ahead of me in the line was a black couple. The man tried to pay for a deli sandwich with a credit card. The card was declined. Ditto for the debit card he tried next.
The couple left, and said that they'd be back momentarily. The cashier, believing them, did not void the pending transaction. Instead, she and I, plus the folks behind me in the checkout line waited. And waited. And waited.
It seemed like the proverbial eternity, but eventually the black couple returned to the supermarket. This time they had a few dollars of cash to pay for the ready-made deli sandwich.
Were they destitute?
Not hardly.
I remember the male wearing a FUBU (For Us By Us http://www.fubu.com) jacket, and new, starched, and freshly pressed jeans. I think he was wearing K-Swiss http://www.kswiss.com athletic shoes, too.
Not one penny in the bank, and not one dime's worth of credit, but enough cash from somewhere to buy a ready-made sandwich.
Why not just buy a loaf of bread, two pounds of sliced deli meat, some mayo or mustard, and have sandwiches for a few days?
Or does my attitude reflect different cultural values?
N.S.: Yes; Ex-Pat’s attitude reflects a culture of virtue, vs. a culture of vice.
The accompanying news video reports—it was unclear who was who—that either the white rescuer or the black widower believed that shooter James Lawrence McCarty was high on something, not that that reduces his legal or moral culpability one iota. I’m sure that we’ll learn that McCarty had plenty of priors, too.
Man accused of shooting woman in head appears in court
HPD: Victim dies, witnesses hold suspect until police arrive
Author: Mary Cuervo, News Associate Producer
Mark Boyle, Reporter, mboyle@kprc.com
Gianna Caserta, Reporter, gcaserta@click2houston.com
Published on Jun 09 2014 06:07:56 A.M. CDT
Updated on Jun 09 2014 01:55:29 P.M. CDT
KPRC
Man accused of shooting woman has his day in court
HOUSTON -
A man police said shot a woman in the head at point blank range in southeast Houston appeared in court late Sunday night.
According to court documents, James Lawrence McCarty was with two friends, a husband and wife, Saturday night.
They stopped at a Valero gas station in the 7500 block of Scott Street near the South Loop.
The victim, Cyril Chatman Jones, stayed in the van while her husband and McCarty went into the store.
Information read in court revealed, "The store declined McCarty's credit card and he became agitated at that fact. The defendant came out of the store while the complainant's husband stayed inside.
The complainant (Chatman Jones) was in the seat in the van and started talking to the complainant [sic]. He then pulled out a .25-caliber handgun, pointed at her head and fired one time causing her death."
Police said it was unclear what Chapman Jones, 33, and McCarty were talking about or what motivated McCarty, 55, to shoot her.
During court proceedings, the judge set McCarty's bond at $50,000.
A [white] bystander heard the shooting and put his own life on the line to stop McCarty. Chance Perkins heard the shots and took action.
"I look[ed] out of the corner of my eye and [saw] a silver pistol in this man's hand," said Perkins. "I want[ed] to keep my distance, and then he just shot the victim like it was nothing. Cold-blooded just right there, pulled [the gun] out in broad daylight and shot her."
Perkins not only witnessed the shooting, but grabbed McCarty and helped hold him down until police arrived.
"I was five feet from him, and that's when flight or fight kicked in, and me and him got into it," Perkins said. "I pushed my knee into the small of his back and got him on the ground."
Perkins said the man fired three more shots before other witnesses helped hold him down and get the gun from him.
"I know what's right," Perkins said. "I gotta do it. When I saw that happen, I couldn't live with myself if I just walked away or ran. I couldn't do that."
He also revealed he just left the military after 6 years of service. Perkins said his combat training also helped guide his actions.
The victim's family spoke with Local 2.
"I'm real frustrated because that's a beautiful woman that he took and I don't understand what happened," said Willie Jones, the victim's husband.
Even though the suspect has been arrested in this case, police still plan on questioning him to determine a motive.
[There likely was no motive. Evil is like that. As my chief of research says, people do what they do. And as my old philosophy teacher, Hans Joachim Kraemer, liked to say, “Gründe lassen sich immer finden.” (“Reasons can always be found.”) Herr Krämer was talking about people rationalizing their conduct, but the logic is similar, with regard to motivation.
Take two: Before someone says, “Stix, you idiot, of course we can assess motivation…”
With behavior that is merely wicked, we can often assess motivation. When someone steals something, we can say that he was motivated by greed and laziness. But much of evil conduct doesn’t work that way. When a robber murders his victim, even though the vic didn’t fight back, there was no conventional motive. There was no end that the means of murder served, unless you want to call the feeling of sadistic power an end.]
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