Posted on 06/01/2005 10:08:44 AM PDT by macher
The 9-year-old girl's mother was gone only briefly Monday, running upstairs to the 11th floor to borrow a hair-straightening comb to help give the girl braids before a barbecue downstairs in the courtyard.
The girl was playing with one of her closest friends, with whom she spent so much time that some thought they were related, an 11-year-old named Queen Washington. Everyone called her Queenie. In the 9-year-old's apartment on the seventh floor of the Linden Houses in East New York, Brooklyn, the two girls began to fight over a ball, the police said.
As any parent will tell, even the gentlest child has an occasional tantrum. But the 9-year-old, while bright and inventive, struck some of her neighbors as a different kind, a girl who often showed flashes of nasty, violent anger when she did not get her way.
"As long as things go in her favor, she was a sweet, beautiful young girl," said Kahindà Lannigan, 42, a retired home care worker who lives in the girl's building. "But when the tides were in favor of other children, she'll hit, kick, scratch, scream and spit. She'd hit anyone on the head with a bottle if she was fighting. She'd beat them any way she could."
Still, the adults who knew her said yesterday, no one would imagine her capable of killing.
The police said the 9-year-old stabbed Queenie in the chest with a steak knife. The blade perforated the older girl's heart, killing her as she stumbled out of the apartment and tried to make it to the elevator down the hall, the police said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
That does it. Nothing to do now but outlaw 9-year-olds.
The nine-year old has done a true evil act. It's a shame... in an earlier time we'd hang 'm before growing up to do some *real* damage. Sometimes I have to wonder... shame on us for being so enlightened that we put ourselves at grave risk.
queeniekiaradivadakimkahinda
"Jennifer 8. Lee"?
What is the "8." short for? 86?
Dan
Might be named after that film "Jennifer 8" from 1992 although that would make the contributer 13.
Before the demands appear for legislation to put all kitchen knives in lock boxes, IMO, the mother should not have left those children by themselves.
Sounds as if she's quite capable of stabbing , though; not much of a leap from there to killing, is there? C'mon, people, think!
I don't see how someone could kill their friend and live with themselves. My best friend is like a brother to me. I would sooner plunge the knife in my own chest as do something like this.
Obviously, there were some problems here with the parenting aspect. I don't think this happened because mom let her out of her site for a couple of minutes. It's literally impossible to watch someone very second of the day. Where the parents are responsible, however, IS NEGLECTING TO TEACH THEIR CHILD THAT KILLING PEOPLE IS WRONG.
Ahem- you can kill someone by smashing their head with a bottle.....
It would have to depend on the circumstances, and a detailed knowledge of the girls, but in general a 9-year-old and an 11-year-old should be old enough to be left alone for periods of time.
I wouldn't be surprised if children this age don't play outside without supervision, or walk to and from school together.
There are times when children go crazy, and lash out. It is just an unfortunate fact of life that once in a while, in a fit of childish anger, a child is going to have access to the means by which they can inflict a fatal blow. If it wasn't a knife, it might have been a heavy object to the head, or a push down the stairs, or against the corner of a sharp object.
I've watched children beat each other with sticks, and a minute later be playing like nothing happened. The only difference being that they got lucky and the sticks did no harm.
Of course, it isn't just kids. At one summer job, two company softball teams went at each other with baseball bats after a questionable call (my involvement was limited to standing on the bleachers and grabbing bats out of people's hands if they walked nearby). These weren't "bad" people, they were blue and white-collar workers. And nobody was really hurt, but one "lucky" blow could have killed someone.
It is cases like this that lead to bad laws.
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Yup, those names explain it all, what else could we expect?
Which mother?
I blame Queenie's.
What precisely do the names explain? Please explain. Try to tie it into the Ohio farmhouse murders from this past weekend as well, if you can.
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Perhaps you should direct this to the original poster and think a bit more about the intention of my reply to him.
Tragic. I wonder if the killer's father was in the home, or is he absentee?
But when the tides were in favor of other children, she'll hit, kick, scratch, scream and spit. She'd hit anyone on the head with a bottle if she was fighting. She'd beat them any way she could."
Still, the adults who knew her said yesterday, no one would imagine her capable of killing. . .]
Not a child to be close to. . .
At the same time, I am amazed at the level of violence that is accepted by some parents; as as they watch they children. . .'be children'.
Please make sure to include full attribution when posting articles. Thanks.
Most children know that instinctively/spiritually unless their innocence has been destroyed in some manner or/and they have acute neurological/psychological problems.
My peers and I didn't do too much of that sort of thing when kids in the 1930's and 40's!
You might say the option never seriously presented itself... despite all the gangsters and cowboy-and-Indian action we gloried in around the neighborhood and at the movie theatres...and eventually the great satisfaction of seeing on the screen our troops obliterate - kill - the Axis powers in WWII
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