Fatal Shooting Caught On Tape

[k¡tty]

CNN News



WASHINGTON (AP) -- District of Columbia police have released a videotape showing witnesses doing nothing to help a man after he was fatally shot at a gas station.

"That's just one of the worst things I've ever seen," said Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey. "There just aren't words to describe something like that."

Police said the station surveillance video showing the January 31 slaying of Allen E. Price is disturbing because it not only shows the crime, but the apathy of those who were there, including one man who continued pumping kerosene after looking briefly at Price's body.

Not only did the man finish pumping his kerosene, but paid for it and drove off, giving the camera its clearest look at Price lying on the ground. That customer has not been found.

The camera also recorded several cars pulling away from the station after the shooting, with at least one car pulling up to the kerosene pump beside Price after he was shot.

Police also interviewed dozens of people on a passing city bus but no one saw anything.

Police have no motive or suspects.





Putting aside the murderer's disregard for anothers life.. I'm just amazed at the bystander's inaction. How could someone continue getting his kerosene, pay for it and just leave knowing that someone had just been shot in front of him. Knowing that the man was laying there bleeding, in pain, not knowing that he had been fatally wounded.

I wonder what his thoughts were as he replaced the cap to the kerosene container.

What he was thinking about as he pulled his money from his wallet and paid for his purchase.

Where his thoughts were as he got into his car and drove home.

Was he thinking about what was for dinner that night? The tv program he'd been waiting to watch?

If he had children of his own.. how he could look at them and not be ashamed of himself. If it ever crossed his mind to wonder the possiblities of that happening to someone he loved and cared about. How he'd feel if he were finding out that someone finished up doing what they were doing, before paying the bill and driving away and leaving his loved one there bleeding on the ground.

 

[Ezzie]

Kitty, people amaze me everyday and it's not always in a good way. What happened to this man is not only disturbing, but, a real look at they way some people just are. Some people are just too worried about their own lives to get involved in the lives of others. I personally couldn't be one of the people who just ignore what they see. I wouldn't want to have to deal with the shame of walking away from a dying person knowing that I may be their last comfort.

Reality bites.

 

[T.J. Jackson]

I found it appalling and disgusting when I saw this on the news. But not surprising. It seems many people have an attitude of they don't want to get involved or just general apathy these days. Sad.

 

[k¡tty]

Ay I agree.



The fact that no one went to that man after the presence of danger was over.. *shakes her head*

 

[woodgie2]

The French have a "Good Samaratain" law that states you are obliged to help in situations like that. The penalty for inaction sometimes being worse than that for the crime...

 

[Killswitch]

Nothing surprises me anymore.

Nothing has surprised me for a very long time.

Was this one of the sniper shootings?

 

[k¡tty]

Nothing surprises me anymore.

Nothing has surprised me for a very long time.

Was this one of the sniper shootings?

It happened just before one pm yesterday.



It's a shame that we would even need to have laws like that.. but at least ya'll have it woodgie.

 

[bknight2602]

I found it appalling and disgusting when I saw this on the news. But not surprising. It seems many people have an attitude of they don't want to get involved or just general apathy these days. Sad.

I believe this is the case, sadly.

 

[Lost Cause]

Social Conditioning at work...

Disarm a people, disempower them through repeated messages of "let the police/government take care of it" for you, and don't be a "vigilante."
You got a couple of generations (since 70's) who have been taught this apathy, and are now acting out the desired outcome of the instructors in government.
What you should have saw was armed citizens stopping the situation when it started, and holding the two for police, who, instead of arrest the armed citizens, would sort out the bad from the good.
"That what you sow.." Sheep...........

 

[woodgie2]

It happened just before one pm yesterday.



It's a shame that we would even need to have laws like that.. but at least ya'll have it woodgie.

Not me, I'm in the UK.

I believe some of the photographers who photographed Diana as she lay in the wreck of the car in that Parisian tunnel were prosecuted under that law.

 

[MissTaken]

I was appalled when I first read this.

Now, I wonder, if a) people have become desensitized to violent death by the media or in particular, the sniper of last fall?

or

b) Perhaps, DC ites are so afraid by the terrorist threat that they are focussed on themselves, their safety and wondering if a run of the mill shooting could be the beginning of something bigger?

(I apologize for the choice of words, "run of the mill", I have had enough coffee yet to ensure tact. )

 

[k¡tty]

I was appalled when I first read this.

Now, I wonder, if a) people have become desensitized to violent death by the media or in particular, the sniper of last fall?

or

b) Perhaps, DC ites are so afraid by the terrorist threat that they are focussed on themselves, their safety and wondering if a run of the mill shooting could be the beginning of something bigger?

(I apologize for the choice of words, "run of the mill", I have had enough coffee yet to ensure tact. )

I would have to say A if either.

Yes there are the terrorist threats to consider.. heck I'd be affected before say someone in Florida, if there was to be an attack on DC.

But I wouldn't, no I couldn't live with myself if I saw someone laying on the ground hurt or dying. To allow them to suffer while I thought of my own selfish needs, my own fears.. it's incomprehensible to me.


- and I apologize for my typos.. I've been up all night. lol
I'm sorry Woodgie.. I know that I've seen you mention where you are from before.. I just forgot.

 

[Gil_Favor]

I saw the tape this morning, Frankly Im not surprised. In 1964 a women was murdered in NYC her screams were heard by her neighbors, No one called the police or helped her. Times and people are really no different. Now, mans indifference to man is just caught on tape.

 

[Lancecastor]

It happened just before one pm yesterday.

I thought it happened recently as well....but your news copy says January 31.

~~~

I saw a Canadian comedian on tv over the weekend talking about public reaction to Murder in the USA vs in Canada.

He said that in Canada, a Murder is still front page news, which is accurate even in our largest cities.

But he went on to say that in the USA, Murder, even bizarre Murder, is so commonplace that unless the murderer does "something really creative, like hack off their heads and collect them on a rope"...nobody even notices the story anymore.

I think that while an exaggeration of sorts, those sentiments accurately summarize the way Canadians perceive Americans' general reaction to violence in their society.

In this case, something out of the ordinary happened....it was caught on tape...people obliviously going about their business during and after a murder in front of them.

If not for the security tape revealing the way those people chose to ignore a shooting in front of them...it would be just another murder in Washington DC and neither you, me nor anyone else would likely be talking about it.

Because it wouldn't be "news"...a plain old execution-style shot to the head in DC is, after all, no big deal.

Right?

I believe the general desensitization to violence and the common use of deadly force with guns by American citizens also goes towards explaining why the USA is largely not only blase, but itching to invade Iraq...it'll be a display of killing on a scale big enough to get you all excited. The "Cnn Effect" will take hold and many will watch extra tv just to see the mass killings.

For me, it's a source of endless fascination that the mightiest and most blessed country in the history of the world can preach Freedom & Democracy so loudly while simultaneously killing each other and innocent people around the world at such a systematically cold blooded rate.

Thanks for bringing that story forward...I believe it says a lot about the USA.

Lance

 

[DVS]

I heard he was probably dead when he hit the ground, but that doesn't excuse anyone who didn't try to help him. Heartless creeps.

 

[watergirl]

I read about it in the post yesterday morning.

Frightening, but - having lived in and around DC for the past 3 years, and having been to that gas station once (it is sketchy) - unsurprising.

 

[k¡tty]

You're absolutely correct Lance. It happened January 31st the article was posted yesterday. As I said I have yet to go to sleep..



I think that's a vast generalization to say that by going into Iraqit'll be a display of killing on a scale big enough to get you all excited. I doubt that many of us will be sitting by our televisions with a bowl of popcorn watching all of the action.

Having friends in the military, knowing that their lives and the lives of many others - not only American lives - are in danger doesn't get me excited. It leaves a knot in the pit of my stomache.

As to how the story says a lot about the US that's yet another stereotype.

I do agree with you however that had there not been a tape of the murder showing the bystanders doing nothing, it wouldn't have made headlines. Just as a home burning to the ground wouldn't be big news except for it occuring on Christmas night.

 

[Lancecastor]

I think that's a vast generalization to say that by going into Iraqit'll be a display of killing on a scale big enough to get you all excited. I doubt that many of us will be sitting by our televisions with a bowl of popcorn watching all of the action.

'CNN effect' could hit sales if fighting starts in Iraq

Consumers will likely postpone purchases and stay home watching TV during crises, JOHN SAUNDERS writes

Tony DeBartolo, who runs Massimo Pizza in Toronto's Kensington Market neighbourhood with help from his father, his sister, an uncle and a cousin, saw his delivery trade suddenly improve 17 months ago when jets seized by suicidal fanatics flew into New York's World Trade Center.

Mr. DeBartolo was benefiting from what is called the CNN effect, a tendency of spending patterns to change momentarily in the face of really gripping news.

Examples: the 1991 Persian Gulf war, the 2001 terrorist raids, a war in Iraq any week now.

For most businesses, this wind blows no good, keeping customers out of malls and showrooms as they fixate on the pictures, pundits and news conferences aired non-stop by Cable News Network and its peers. Some revenue is lost forever, some merely delayed.

That view is endorsed by Chris Varvares, president of Macroeconomic Advisers LLC of St. Louis.

"If and when -- not if but when -- the shooting starts, the first thing you know is a lot of people are going to die. Maybe it's good to try to find some benefit in that to write about, but it seems to me anything else really pales beside it."

Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at Standard & Poor's, the venerable New York bond-rating and market data firm, expects a blip in sales of snack foods, soft drinks and tobacco "because you've got to be doing something while you watch TV, and that's usually eating, smoking, drinking."

If CNN keeps them occupied, Mr. Stovall says, "then they don't need to go outside to shop for the sake of shopping. You know: 'When the going gets boring, the boring go shopping.' But if there's something to do on TV, then that is their form of entertainment and, yes, that would be lost."

It is not clear who coined the term, but several "CNN effects" have been suggested since the first live broadcast of cruise missiles hitting Baghdad a dozen years ago. A political-military version is said to explain why U.S. troops went into strife-torn Somalia in 1992 and why they high-tailed it back out when Americans started dying. A pop-sociological version involves people turning their backs on events from coverage overload.

full story: http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030215/RCNNN/TPBusiness/TopStories

See also: The "CNN Effect:" TV & Foreign Policy

 

[MissTaken]

Lance,

Do you really think that the world is going to be glued to the television like they were the first time around?

As I recall, one of the reasons the Gulf War gleaned so much tv time was that it was the first war to be broadcast, nearly 24/7.

Also, I wonder, and I hesitate to open this can of worms, isn't there a certain sense of "Been there, done that" with Gulf War: The Sequel?

Just random thoughts and questions.

 

[Johnny Mayberry]

I saw the tape this morning, Frankly Im not surprised. In 1964 a women was murdered in NYC her screams were heard by her neighbors, No one called the police or helped her. Times and people are really no different. Now, mans indifference to man is just caught on tape.

Her name was Kitty too...Kitty Genovese, I believe, and her neighbors watched, as she was stabbed dozens of times. Her death took more than 5 minutes, and not one neighbor did anything until long after it was too late. The worst of it is, to me, that TV has played the biggest role in turning people into spectators, yet television will place the blame everywhere except on its own shoulders.

 

[k¡tty]

As I recall, one of the reasons the Gulf War gleaned so much tv time was that it was the first war to be broadcast, nearly 24/7.

Very true.


But my point wasn't whether or not people will be watching the broadcasts.. but to argue the point that we don't be doing it for the entertainment purposes of watching people die. When I bother to turn on the television, and the rare occasion that I watch something of that nature.. it's because I'm worried. I'm worried about friends and loved ones who are serving their country, my country. I'm worrying if that's where they are.. what sort of danger they are in.

 

[Lancecastor]

Lance,

Do you really think that the world is going to be glued to the television like they were the first time around?

As I recall, one of the reasons the Gulf War gleaned so much tv time was that it was the first war to be broadcast, nearly 24/7.

Also, I wonder, and I hesitate to open this can of worms, isn't there a certain sense of "Been there, done that" with Gulf War: The Sequel?

Just random thoughts and questions.

I suggest your post expands my main point...Americans are blase about violence and require ever-increasing levels of it to stay interested.

This is hardly a new or radical concept....it's the moral behind the South Park Movie, for example.

So yes, Americans will require better coverage of the killings with nastier weapons in order to stay glued.

As was the case last time, your invasion of Iraq will take place during or just after February Ratings Sweeps... only this time Cheney and Powell won't be told to pull back from Bagdhad to avoid killing civilians like Bush 1 did.

Bush2 is going to send people house-to-house after bombing the city...CNN is already showing the house-to-house practice the Army is doing in Qatar.

And yes, Americans will watch.

Lance

 

[Johnny Mayberry]

I think the deeper issue is that we have been conditioned to look for something to watch when we are worried, as though it were the same thing as doing something. When we are scared, as a people, we go into spectator mode, instead of getting on with out lives.

 

[Lancecastor]

Very true.


But my point wasn't whether or not people will be watching the broadcasts.. but to argue the point that we don't be doing it for the entertainment purposes of watching people die.

The line between News & Entertainment in US media has been blurred for years.

In virtually all other countrries, news programming is still free of the hoo-ha you see on US news "shows".

The idea that Americans are desensitized to killing is encapsulated in that video of people going about their business at the gas station in DC.

The idea that Americans will watch shootings as entertainment is illustrated by the repeated showing of that video on American TV and these words from the report you posted: "Not only did the man finish pumping his kerosene, but paid for it and drove off, giving the camera its clearest look at Price lying on the ground.

Lance

 

[Johnny Mayberry]

The line between News & Entertainment in US media has been blurred for years.

In virtually all other countrries, news programming is still free of the hoo-ha you see on US news "shows".
Lance

If you don't believe him, try listening to CNN from another room...not the words, just the inflections and music. Often, it sounds like a cross between pro wrestling and an ad for Monster Trucks! It is fed to you as entertainment, and packaged for maximum ratings. That means it is sold like 'reality TV action hour'.