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.
Every sporting goods store should carry it during deer season; aids hunters in masking/attracting.
Meth has several things such as Drano, lithium metal, brake fluid, ether and many more poisons in it.It really is poisoning those ignorant enough to use it. Can you imagine the cancer rate of those that survive the abuse now. They are gonna grow a third eye or something.
Jesus! I just thought of pregnant women and birth defects!!
ROTF....A bail bondsman told me almost verbatim last week .
I would encourage anyone in a "can't" carry city (or a "won't" carry state of mind), to at least carry some LE grade OC spray, learn to recognise potential threats (while there's still time to respond), but most of all, learn to know when and where you are most at risk and avoid putting yourself in those situations and be prepared.
c#234
What are you talking about?
She didn't dare or taunt anybody. She simple asked somebody with a gun if shooting them was what he intended to do.
Your claim that she go what was coming to her as if she deserved to be shot is incredibly warped.
Huh? Guess you think he was capable of stopping bullets?
No it was turning his back to her while she was facing criminals by herself.
Post 16 and 39?
They are long gone.
Yep--that and "30 yards--30 seconds" rule!
"...The only thing that seperates [Nicole duFresne] from any other victim of violent crime in NYC is that she was one of the rising glittery people of stage and screen: An upcoming *star*!..."
Your commentary is unfortunately right on the money. If she was an unattractive, 5'1", 195 lb. woman with a faint mustache, this story would have been buried by now. That is the sad reality of our "media bite" society.
~ Blue Jays ~
I've worked in a number of factories with the requisite number of bikers (it seemed one couldn't legally drive a forklift with riding a hog to work) and there were some serious drug problems and obvious dental issues. One self-proclaimed "scooter trash" gal had some sort of black scruz on her remaining couple of teeth. She was late thirties, and I'd be quite surprised if she's still alive.
This gal told me she once hid in a closet for a couple of days while tweaking. Who knows if her stories are true or not (like having sex with a police officer in his patrol car after having been supplied cocaine). Her life is/was a sad story, really, and she certainly is the one who chose the plot.
I was always kind to her, but I recall her showing me that she had accidentally cut herself on the job. I would have burned her with a soldering iron if she got any closer with that biohazard. Might as well have sat down on a whoopie cushion filled with anthrax.
nobody deserves to get shot and killed.....
where does freeperdom come up with these people....
FR Quote of the Week!
My brother just got back from Europe tonite. He spent a great deal of time in Amsterdam and while he is a lifelong Marley, he now understands why drugs should not be legalized.....hard drugs in particular.
I had been there before and to the Needle Parks in Zurich so I already knew but he was appalled at junkies everywhere and everything from heroin ("charlie"..lol), crack, coke, crank etc openly hawked everywhere in full view of the cops. Folks lying in gutters....just very gritty for Europe.
Sad....he liked the cafes but thought they should clean up the junkies.
Absolutely true, but it's not just the media's fault. Go back through the various FR threads about this shooting (including this one) and take note of how many people are posting giant pictures of Nicole showing off her breasts, even though their written comments in no way require a photo of her to be posted to make their points.
She was blonde, attractive, with big hooters. Nobody would be saying a word otherwise.
(Ironically, those same attributes probably played a role in her death. She probably spent her entire life being treated like she was a superior human being to the rest of us, which in turn led to her having a snotty, obnoxious personality, which led her to stupidly mouth off to a nutcase with a gun...)
The cafes enable the junkies. I see he's still as illogical as always.
Her father is already on record as saying something to the effect of, "If only we were an enlightened, gun-free society, my daughter would be alive today." Her mother, also. Completely clueless. Completely leftist.
well...he just got home two hours ago....I have been reluctant to beat him over the head yet.
;>)
he's still talking about your tallish kinfolks...lol...and how cold Budapest was....around 3 and snowy but lots of leggy buxomy babes....and good food.
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