Posted on 02/03/2005 6:00:06 PM PST by Gondring
As an actress, Nicole duFresne had roles in dozens of way-off-Broadway productions.
But it was an unfortunate real-life line witnesses say duFresne uttered before her slaying — "What are you going to do, shoot us?" — that has brought her to the public's attention.
Authorities have refused to speculate whether the 28-year-old actress and playwright's defiant stand against a bandit prompted him to shoot her to death last week on a New York City street.
"Regardless of what the victim said or did not say, the person responsible for her death is the one who pulled the trigger," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said earlier this week.
Safety advocates, however, have cited the case as a lesson in how not to respond to a holdup.
On Wednesday, the Washington-based National Crime Prevention Council responded to widespread reports about duFresne's last words by circulating a list of tips on how to survive a mugging.
"It demonstrates that confronting an attacker is probably the worst thing you can do," said council spokesman Todd Post.
DuFresne, a Minnesota transplant who had lived in Seattle before coming to New York, listed "stage combat" as one of her skills on her Internet resume. She was leaving a bar with her fiancé and another couple at about 3 a.m. Jan. 27 when they were accosted by a group of youths who had already tried to rob another person earlier in the evening.
Witnesses told police that when the group demanded the other woman's purse, duFresne responded with: "What are you going to do, shoot us?" Police said she also might have gotten into a brief shoving match with the shooter before he fired a bullet into her chest.
Police arrested the alleged triggerman, Rudy Fleming, 19, and two teenage girls they say took a cell phone and credit cards and helped hide the murder weapon. All three have been charged with murder and robbery.
On its tip sheet, the crime prevention council advises potential victims to stay cool and comply with robbers. At the same time, people should take mental notes on what the assailant looks like so they can provide a detailed description to police, the sheet says.
A robbery "is more about power than anything," said Alfonso E. Lenhardt, president of the nonprofit council, known for its McGruff the Crime Dog mascot.
"It's a tragedy, but in this case it sounds like (the suspect) felt he wasn't getting the respect he was due," Lenhardt said. "When a gun is in the hands of a desperate person with low self-esteem, they're going to react that way."
The others charged in the killing are Ashley Evans, 18, and Tatianna McDonald, 14. Two young men were charged in the earlier robbery attempt, while two other youths are considered by police to be witnesses.
A graduate of Emerson College in Boston, duFresne was a founding member of the Present Tense Theater Project and acted with the LAByrinth Theater Co., according to her online resume. She wrote a play called "Burning Cage" with Mary Jane Gibson, the woman with her and her fiancé at the time of the shooting.
"Burning Cage," about two women in an asylum who are targeted for brainwashing experiments with LSD, toured in 2002 at fringe theater festivals in Canada and the United States.
DuFresne's other play, "Matter," is about an amnesiac whose apartment is taken over by a violent and seductive intruder. It was performed in Brooklyn in 2003.
Smarting off to some punk who has no regard for human life, holding a gun, is no way to die either.
(Ice" is a pure form of meth.
It's clear.)
How do you know that?
When I was in grad school I did a study in a demographics class on the correlation, or lack of, between Race and murder rates for the state of Florida.
The most interesting thing to me was that although race had a strong positive correlation, there was another factor which appeared to be even more important.
Since it was not the factor I was studying, I didn't make the statistical comparison but it soon became obvious that the rural counties in Florida had much lower homicide rates. For instance I noted that Gadsden County which has the highest Black percentage and is also a poor county, was not even close to the highest murder rate.
See post 138,
You are all making the Left Wing ARGUEMENT with the
"Well they're gonna do it anyway"
I agree.
I'm just guessing but baby Connor's death got a lot of people thinking about abortion.
Ridiculous. What leads them to do the act is that they make a snap decision that they will succeed. Barring the psychotic killers, all of those research subjects would back down if their victim posed a risk after their initial judgement that they didn't. Otherwise gitmo would be empty and courts would have no defendants to try.
These creeps size up their victim and go. They don't attack what they can't handle and they don't proceed against what proves to be a clear threat. In a good number of cases they kill the victim regardless, because they pose a risk if left alive.
Not running away, but it's time for me to get to work. I'd like to continue the discussion at a later date...take it easy.
What was the reason?
ONLY the shooter can answer.
We can only speculate.
Sick of her too. I'm not sure what good is going to come out of this crime but you can be sure there are some girls and guys who are going to be careful. No matter where I go, I refuse to put myself into a compromising state that would bring my safety into question.
Probably something that can't be cooked up in a bathtub lab.
Likely I know all there is to know about meth,
although not from personal consumption.
Beyond that. You're arguments are based on statements without facts. That is particularly why I don't agree with your overall argument.
very interesting post
Sure it can.
Not in a bathtub, but in a self constructed lab.
Ice is meth that's clean and clear.
Takes several "washings" and thus it's expensive
and not all that available.
It's kind of like "bring it on" isn't it?
Scary... I just can't imagine.
Walking down the street can put you in a compromising postion, safety is never a sure thing.
You have a point. You never know who you are around.
Whew, good to know.
I can't imagine that a meth user could also be a freeper:)
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