6-year-old heart patient's shooting death rattles St. Louis

[Jazzy]

6-year-old heart patient's shooting death rattles St. Louis

Johnson Jr.'s parents figured a sunny day at the park was just what their son needed while recovering from heart surgery.

Instead, the outing turned deadly when the 6-year-old was shot in the chest in an attack the parents said stemmed from a traffic dispute. A funeral for their boy was held Thursday, just over a week after the family visited O'Fallon Park on the north side of St. Louis following a doctor's appointment.

The occupants of a car fired on the family's minivan as it left the park. The boy's 15-year-old brother and a 69-year-old family friend were also wounded.

The boy's father, Marcus Johnson Sr., said he returned fire in self-defense as the rolling shootout continued for several blocks. Three other children — ages 8, 10 and 11 — were also in the vehicle.

Officer Don Re was less reticent in his personal blog, describing in detail his response to a "senseless death" when he was called to the hospital where another officer had driven the child in his patrol car rather than wait for an ambulance.

The young heart patient's death rattled St. Louis, which has been enduring a crime surge. The 2014 homicide rate was one of the city's highest in nearly two decades.

"There was a line drawn," funeral director Ronald Jones said, referring to an unwritten code of the streets that protected the innocent from violence. "Kids, family — they were off-limits."

Now, how stupid is the father to continue a rolling gun battle with his kids in the car? His first thought should have been to get his kids out of there. It just goes to show the mentality of the father. It was more important to him to carry a weapon with his kids in the car and fire instead of protecting his kids. At the very least, the father should be charged with child endangerment. I feel for the child but the father was just as culpable as the others in the other car.

Your thoughts?

 

[Wonko]

I have to agree the father should have moved away from the van to protect the kids but then we are sitting in our chairs judging something when we were not there to witness the incident.