SEVEN TEENAGERS KILLED IN N. C.

[boothead]

Seven teenagers ranging from 13 to 18 were killed this A.M. about 12:30 after being chased by the Troutman Police. The driver was seen driving in an erratic way and a chase was started. The car ran off the roadway to the left and went into a slid ending up in a small stream-bed on it's top. All seven, 5 boys and 2 girls were killed instantly. The auto was stolen earlier in the night. Some of the victims have not been identified. The teenagers were all from the Statesville, N. C. area. Sorry but this is all I have.

[TheCrusader]

"In this city a 13 year old murdered a man in a car-jacking over a truck and we've seen several people injured in a struggle over their car. Car thieves are not minor or petty criminals, these kids were driving wrecklessly because they didn't care who they killed ---- they figured they had a right to keep the car they had stolen and didn't care who died trying to stop them."

Geez, talk about generalizing and lumping all teens together because of some other incidents. Some of the kids in this car were only 13 years old, weren't driving, and if pulled over probably could not even have been charged with a crime. Judging by the responses I am getting I can see that a certain cold-heartedness and fierceness prevails today that never used to be. I thank God I am not one of them, but this has all been prophesied:

"But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, wicked, inhuman, without affection, without peace, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of goodliness but denying the power of it. Avoid such people." (2 Timothy 3: 1-5)

[Enterprise]

I certainly do hold the parents responsible for her behavior. That is partly what I meant by the law failing the Store Owner. At some point prior to the incident, the girl and her parents should have been confronted by the authorities for all her actions. I can't believe that this is the only place she got into trouble.

[TheCrusader]

"Wonder why the teens were driving erratically to begin with?"

One must also bear in mind that out of the entire car full of kids, only one was driving.

[ken in texas]

... there is a massive difference between a pilfered car with seven young teens in it and a getaway car speeding away from the scene of an armed bank robbery

True, though there is nothing in the text of the article that indicates what facts were known at the time. Now, perhaps, it may be a "petty crime" as you say, but the article does not give many other details beyond describing a driver that should have been removed from the roadway. In the act of evading law enforcement the driver killed all who were in the car. Tragic? YES. Avoidable? Another YES. Fault? The driver, not the pursuer.

Unfortunately, a very sad piece of news.

[SunnyUsa]

Sorry to sound cold but I laugh when someone decides to play Russian Roulette and looses.

wow, you are just full of that Tis the Season cheer and good will to all! lol

[spectre]

OK..you can win that point.

So by driving crazy, that would make it one suicide and 6 murders..

sw

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

Actually I don't like the idea of high speed pursuits either, I don't think they're necessary MOST of the time given today's tracking technology.

Our police dept. tried that. Guess what happened. They stopped a pursuit. The car thieves took that as an opened invitation to continue driving at high speeds which resulted in a head-on collusion with a law abiding family. The family died in the accident.

Now the relatives of that family are suing the police since they didn't stop the high speed driver. The police can't win no matter what they do.

If I or one of my loved ones dies as a result of the police doing their job they will get not complaints from me except toward the law-breakers.

[FITZ]

It sounds like a gang --- 13 year olds running with a gang of older criminals. It might be too bad for the 13 year olds who just went along for the ride but car theft is a serious crime. You can't just shrug your shoulders and figure because someone is only 16 or 17, they can just steal cars to drive around as they please. These kids most likely had plenty of encounters with the law before -- stealing cars isn't a petty juvenile prank. If the car owner had tried to prevent them from stealing his car it's likely they figured they had the right to injure or kill him for it.

[Servant of the 9]

Aren't you aware that the police being allowed to chase down every single car theft like this is a recent development, and that it was formerly frowned upon by police cheifs because they knew it posed more danger to society than the benefits it could provide???

No, I didn't, because it is a lie.

There never was a time when the Police didn't pursue any attempt to flee, on foot, horseback or motor vehicle.
The purpose of the chase, and the reason for the deaths, is to reinforce the civilized behavior of not running from the police. This will cause many of their little gang friends to think twice.

So9

[At _War_With_Liberals]

OK.

[NRA2BFree]

Ohh I see.. you're one of them thar heretical "free will" types...

No, not at all. My deceased husband was a LEO. It makes me mad when people blame cops for doing their jobs. These kids were the criminals, not the cops!!

[usadave]

What part of the words "needless, dangerous high speed chase" don't you understand?

What part of the words "needless car theft and dangerous high speed running from the police by a group of young criminals" don't you understand? Seven young people's criminal careers have now ended. Very unfortunate, but I'll let the parents do the crying.

[FITZ]

Aren't you aware that the police being allowed to chase down every single car theft like this is a recent development,

Only because cars are a fairly recent development. In the West at least, you chould shoot horse thieves.

[Saundra Duffy]

Ban cars

[babaloo999]

Did it ever occur to you that the high speeds and dangerous driving usually happen as a result of being chased by the police and the kid panics and takes off for his life?

I suppose they should exercise some control and not panic. Learn or burn.

[TheCrusader]

"Yes, just ignore people who flee from the police. The world would be so much better off if we'd just ignore the criminals."

And herein lies the whole problem with our angry, fearful, dumbed down society today. Not all that long ago it would have been recognized by the law enforcement people involved that out of the whole car full of kids only ONE was breaking the law, the driver, and that the others may have have been quite innocent. The other kids would more than likely have been considered to be innocents in danger, and the police would have proceeded the persuit with caution, and with the use of radios and tried to avoid the unnessary deaths that occur so often today. I know being cop isn't an easy job, but they aren't using caution and discretion anymore when it comes to the citizens, and nobody seems to give a rap.

[ValerieUSA]

petty crimes like car theft

huh?
They stole an expensive, newer, high-powered Intrepid and were crammed inside with a 15 yr old at the wheel driving eratically at high speeds after midnight? I don't see a petty crime here. I see a terrible accident about to happen.

Not the cop's fault.

[stands2reason]

Can you tell the ages of occupants in a car by following them? I can't. So, the car driving erratically should have been ignored, right?

[stands2reason]

But I'll repeat what I said before... how could they have known beforehand who was in the car and why they ran? The cops flip the lights on, the car takes off, the cops don't know it's a car load of joyriding teenagers. It could have been somebody who just committed armed robbery or murder, there could be a carjack victim in the car, they just don't know. Now what?

(crickets)

[Nanner]

I was once a stupid kid that was joy-riding in a my friends dads car. He had "borrowed" it while his dad was on vacation, I snuck out with him in the middle of the night and ended up totalling his dads car after I rolled it into a ditch going 70 mph. I was 16 without a license. My parents did NOT raise me to do that, I made my own bad choices. Just like those kids did, only I was lucky enough to only have horrible whip lash and my friend escaped with seven staples in his head. I wish a cop WOULD have caught me when I was going 100 mph on the freeway. The car wouldn't have been totalled and we wouldn't have been hurt. I'm just lucky that I rolled it when I did too, because two minutes later a family in a minivan came driving by and called an ambulance for us. THANK GOD FOR THAT COP THAT CHASED THOSE KIDS BEFORE THEY KILLED SOMEONE ELSE. (I'm 19 now and hopefully know better)