Posted on 04/02/2008 7:23:32 AM PDT by 2banana
'Mother's pride' is laid to rest By DAFNEY TALES & DAVID GAMBACORTA Philadelphia Daily News
LONG AFTER the final hymn had been sung and the last rose had been laid across her son's bronze casket, Sharon Conroy sat in her quiet home in Lansdowne trying to make sense of it all.
Her mind drifted through a steady stream of tender memories of her son, Sean Patrick Conroy.
She could see him as an eager, grinning Cub Scout, then as the kid who went to dinner and a movie with her every Friday night until it seemed uncool at age 15.
She remembered his spontaneous move to California after high school to become an animator for Disney, then his return to the Philadelphia area, where he matured into his "mother's pride," working as a mentor in North Philly and helping out with charities.
He found a job that he loved, running a Center City Starbucks, fell in love with the woman of his dreams and, at age 36, planned on a full and happy life. "This was the gentle man I was lucky enough to call my son," Sharon Conroy said.
Then it all fell apart on an underground SEPTA platform in Center City last Wednesday afternoon, when four teens inexplicably attacked Conroy's son, kicking and punching him until he had a fatal asthma attack, police said.
Police arrested Kinta Stanton, 16, a 10th-grader at Simon Gratz High School, and charged him as an adult with murder. Stanton has refused to identify the other youths, who also attend Simon Gratz and remain on the loose, a police source said.
Last night, people who answered the door at Stanton's home on Smedley Street near Griscom told a reporter that they didn't know him.
The fatal attack, which investigators said had been unprovoked, has incensed citizens across the city, from everyday SEPTA riders to Conroy's friends and relatives.
They wonder why no one has turned in the other teens, or what could have prompted them in the first place to attack an innocent guy who was known for his gentle, easygoing nature.
Through it all, Sharon Conroy said she remains calm in this tumultuous sea of anger and pain.
"It's not to say that I'm not angry," she said yesterday, hours after her son was buried at Ss. Peter and Paul Cemetery, in Marple Township. "But my son was a gentle person and would have wanted us to get all the facts."
Conroy said nearly 200 teary-eyed mourners packed St. Cyril's Church, in Lansdowne, for her son's funeral, and the funeral procession included 170 cars.
Starbucks employees were among the attendees, including Mike Rose, a district manager, who talked about Conroy as helpful and compassionate.
Old friends from his Cub Scout days showed up, and a former employer from California sent a two-page euology about how "gentle and polite" Sean Patrick Conroy was.
On Easter Sunday, Conroy became engaged to his longtime girlfriend, Stevany Johar. Yesterday, Johar released a statement through Sharon Conroy, which read in part:
"I still cannot accept his death in so many ways. Everything reminds me of him. Part of me still believes that he will come home, give me a kiss and also a hug like he always did."
In the week since Conroy's death, SEPTA's subway lines have been flooded with more than two dozen members of the Guardian Angels, the civilian watchdog group that was founded in 1979 in response to violence on New York's subway system.
"SEPTA riders are terrified," said Curtis Sliwa, founder and president of the organization. "These kids come on like a tsunami onto trains and trolleys and start acting wild."
The Guardian Angels will patrol the Broad Street line and the Market-Frankford El Monday through Friday, from 1 to 5 p.m., to address commuters' fears. *
Daily News staff writers Mensah Dean and Kirstin Lindermayer contributed to this report.
Yeah, if it wasn’t random, then it was, by definition, TARGETED.
And if it was a bunch of black perps TARGETING a lone white person, that would imply some sort of racial motivation.
“Obama is silent”
Not to defend the black Marxist but do you expect commentary from McCain when MS-13 slaughters an American family?
Likewise.
I fear you are right. I don't think any of us who are white had any idea of the hated towards whites that is being preached in the black churches. And the comments I'm hearing and reading by whites and blacks concerning the hatred preached leads me to think of the late 60's and early 70's.
Hmmm...
Simon Gratz High School? What is the major lessons at the school — ‘How to kill white people’? What is the nickname for the school - ‘the MURDERERS’?
I just had a cousin killed in his own home at 3:00 a.m. in the morning. His wife stated that the voices sounded like black people. I predict blacks will stop murdering when enough potential victims start shooting the S.O.B.'s.
RACISM!! YOU CAN'T SAY THAT! Johnny Cochran said you cannot tell the race of someone by their speech!!! Aaack! (sorry)
“...pair of pliers and a blow torch.”
Gulp.
The inconvenient silence of BHObama bump!
If someone took the 5 stupidest things you ever did and ran them in a 30 second loop for a week, people probably wouldn’t like you either.
If they cared TV stations would be "SPONDATIOUSLY BLOWING UP"...
The ONLY bright side to an Obama win would be that we can finally put to rest the notion that America is horribly, horribly, opressively racist. But neither is going to happen.
I have already told my fiance that if I ever see this happening, I am getting involved and let the chips fall where they may.
Charge them as adults.....with a hate crime.
Why do I get the feeling that if this “typical white person” had shot all three of these kids in self defense he’d be going to jail right now for a “racially motivated murder” of 3 “defenseless” black kids?
Until it is publicly identified, the evil can hide anywhere and everywhere. Until we ALL sit at the table and use the same language, the evil will remain undefeated. And some will profit mightily.
I would by far walk the streets of Harlem than those of Philly. Philly is basically a city in anarchy.
The last comment was close to being right. In Obama’s book, he tells the story of how his grandmother encountered an aggressive pan handler at the bus stop, a Black pan handler, who frightened her.
Well, I’ve encountered some aggressive pan handlers in Seattle, too, and they frighten me. One of them actually sat down at a table with me in Starbucks and started pressuring me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.