Posted on 10/04/2006 10:23:28 PM PDT by neverdem
A teenage mugger took the witness stand yesterday and laid out for a jury the rules of the street that dictated why an actress and playwright on the verge of making it in New York was shot dead, while other mugging victims that night were allowed to live.
It wasn’t the color of her skin, or the amount of money in her purse, the mugger said, but the victim’s attitude — her insouciance, defiance and disdain that made the mugger’s accomplice shoot the actress, 28-year-old Nicole duFresne, once in the chest, killing her.
“What are you going to do, you going to shoot us? Is that what you wanted?” Ms. duFresne demanded, according to Tatiana McDonald, one of the muggers, who testified yesterday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.
As Ms. duFresne shouted those words, she walked up to Rudy Fleming, whom Miss McDonald described as the 19-year-old leader of the pack, and looked him in the eye, Miss McDonald said. Mr. Fleming reacted by pushing Ms. duFresne in the chest with his left hand.
Ms. duFresne stumbled backward, then bounced back and shouted her question again: “What are you going to do, shoot us?”
Mr. Fleming pushed Ms. duFresne a second time, and when she came at him again, he lifted his right arm and fired one bullet, Miss McDonald said.
“He was so mad, he just lift up the gun and shot at her,” Miss McDonald said. “After I saw her grab her chest, I just ran.”
The prosecutor, Eugene Hurley, asked the witness how close Mr. Fleming was to Ms. duFresne when he shot at her.
About two feet away, Miss McDonald replied. “It was pretty close, because he couldn’t even hold up his hand,” she said, noting that Mr. Fleming did not have room to stretch...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Someone has been consulting the thesaurus.
She should have been armed.
You don't say anything. You just respond as violently as you can. Scratch their eyes out, bust their ear drums, drive their balls up to their eyes.
Don't waste time talking.
Don't get in their cars.
Don't let them tie you up.
Don't surrender.
Don't negotiate.
Attack!
Before they can think,
and as violently as your can!
Don't bring your mouth to a gun fight. I really respect her attitude on this though - I just wish she had more to back it up. If every criminal knew a victim would act this way, it wouldn't be so easy to commit a crime.
Notice the NY Times uses "Mr. Fleming". They show more respect to a confessed murderer than to our President who is commonly referred to as "Bush".
No, pretty much the shooter is to blame, not the victim.
You're talking about NYC, where only the elite and the criminals and the politicians (but, I repeat myself) are armed.
Thank you, Mr. Twain, for allowing the slight alteration of your famous sentiment.
Thank you for that information - you get the chair with your buddy.
... way it oughtta be.
Too bad she didn't have something more effective in her purse to back up her commendable attitude. But this is New York City, where (pretty much) only the bad guys have guns.
Now if he'd tried that with a certain red headed daughter of a San Antonio gun range owner, who would be just a little younger, I think, he be the one with the sucking chest wound... well no he wouldn't, she'd hit center of mass, with mulitple rounds. He'd be on a slab in the Morgue, and she'd be no-billed, IF the DA bothered to take the case to the Grand Jury.
A much more desirous outcome, IMHO.
Except in a rational world he had no right to mug her, no right to bother her at all, certainly no right to kill her. In a rational world he would be put to death. Instead, this article makes you feel that the victim was out of line.
"No, pretty much the shooter is to blame, not the victim."
The victims not to blame but it isn't very smart to piss off someone with a gun pointed at you.
It was stupid to challenge the punk. I'm not sure what she expected to accomplish.If she wanted to resist, she should have gone for the firearm.
All due respect to the dead, but I wouldn't have done if I had been her. If you're going to fight back, fight. If you're going to submit, submit. Just yelling at men who have guns isn't all that smart, IMHO. Again, I do respect her vitality in resisting.
Good for her!! I have taught my daughters for years (19 and 17) to poke, gouge, scream, bite, etc but NEVER get in their car, or whatever!
When I was a teenager, an older girl told me of a friend of hers who was "raped". When the guy started to "rape" the girl, she started to "negotiate" a price with him!!!! That pissed him off so much that he left her fled!!!
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