Posted on 03/15/2002 3:23:45 PM PST by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
DUNDALK, Md. (AP) - High school football star Derrick Breedlove had enough charisma and talent to earn a full college scholarship and the respect of many in his working-class community. Then came Wednesday, when he was shot dead trying to hold up a liquor store with a pellet gun.
The 17-year-old with the "college-bound grades" was the ringleader of a robbery gang, police said. They had held up the same store three times since Feb. 5 and may have been responsible for a fourth robbery nearby, according to investigators.
On Thursday night, teen-agers clutching candles and flowers gathered to remember the Derrick Breedlove they knew: the high school senior who shouldered their hopes and dreams of a better life outside working-class Dundalk and the rural community of Turners Station. "If I had known, I would have stopped him," said a friend, Dominic Carmon, 18, between sobs. "He was like my brother."
Kim Stephanic, principal at Dundalk High School outside Baltimore, said the 6-foot, 2-inch, 251-pound Breedlove had a promising future. His coach recalled his raw talent. "He was one of the best football players I ever coached - his quickness, his strength, his desire," said Eric Webber, who helped him win the scholarship to Hampton University in Hampton, Va. "He was a college-bound kid with college-bound grades." Stepfather Derrick Shelton said Breedlove had fallen in with the wrong crowd. He moved out of the house rather than face punishment after he was caught with marijuana. He found an apartment but had quit his restaurant job.
"I broke down crying," Shelton said after Breedlove's death. "I couldn't believe he could do something like that. I sat down with him one day and said, 'Think before you doing something. There are consequences for everything you do.'"
Shelton, also raising two other children, ages 4 and 7, said Breedlove's mother left the family long ago. Shelton believes his stepson was lured into the robbery scheme by friends. Breedlove entered Modern Discount Liquor store Wednesday with a pellet gun demanding cash, investigators said. Clerk Richard Kosinski shot Breedlove. Breedlove never fired his pellet gun, police Cpl. Vickie Warehime said. Kosinski has not been charged.
Ryan Raivel, 17, a senior whose car was seen leaving the store's parking lot, was charged with armed robbery and conspiracy. Ryan Crowe, 17, a dropout, was charged with armed robbery. At the candlelight service in an empty lot across from the liquor store, many of the 200 friends and acquaintances wore hand-drawn T-shirts with Breedlove's nickname, "Dee-Bo."
"We want to remember him for his life, not his mistakes," 18-year-old James Pilkerton said. Not all in the community were sympathetic. "I'm mad," said Lori Thomas, 36, the mother of three. "You get what you deserve. Rob a store three times and I'll be there to shoot your butt."
"Apparently not."
Oh, come now, this kid could have been another Laurence Phillips, made it all the way to the pros, driven drunk and on drugs in a Mercedes with a tire gone to the rim,...
This kid could have had a great career and a few shining moments, like beating up his girlfriend, or the roommate's dog, and then have a disqusting failure in his 20's.
Oh well, another star teen ager goes down before his prime.
Most, yes. But not all. Some kids are not inherently violent and are just plain stupid and confused at that point in their lives. Some are redeemable.
O K
I won't tell you that i have been brainwashed by the PC multicultural crowd into believing the BS in this article.
I actually think about things with my own brain.
Yup. You are completely right.
When a white kid get killed while robbing or burglurizing someone (and yes, it does happen) the neighborhood reaction tends to be, "Too bad we didn't know Johnnie So-and-So was such a moron. Oh well, he got what he had coming to him." The friends and family of the dead white kid then hang their heads in shame for being associated with him.
Good observation. So it's clear that it's not a matter of genetics, but rather a cultural thing.
It's just tiresome
Perhaps you should do something constructive about it then.
Yes, but it's more than that. Also to blame are the Feminist Democrats, what with all their rhetoric about how women can raise children without male role models, and how the government is responsible for their health, safety and welfare, which has caused more strife in the black community, because it was, and still is, most vulnerable to these lies.
He was a punk, a dolt, a loser, a thief and now dead. Old story, move on folks, nothing to see here, move along....
Yep! Although this kid's mom left and he was raised by his step-father, he was definately the exception to the rule.
The fact that he wanted to use any weapon to cause a state of fear in his victim makes this "kid" a more serious criminal than a mere thief such as a shoplifter, etc. This is not just my silly notion, it is a principle of American criminal jurisprudence.
Expect more of the same from AP Wireservices.
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