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."
This infatuation with football players is beyond me.
Drew68’s reply was NOT over the line.
He’s speaking a hard truth about why there’s more crime in black communities. And yes, if a white kid had died robbing a store the ‘white community’ would not be mourning the loss ...
Also when you mention another freeper in a reply don-0 you have an obligation to ping them.
17 years ago!
Which means had he lived he would have already been retired from the NFL.
Every now and then I click on something - somewhere - and all the threads are 2002. It usually takes me a thread or two to figure out the mistake - it’ been like this for years. Sorry ‘bout that... (cue up twilight zone music)
This article is from 2002. It could have been yesterday. American cities are as crime-ridden, and idiot-ridden, as ever.
What’s different now is that Dundalk is much more black than it was 17 years ago and the crime is much worse.
I have no sympathy for this moron. We had had several kids die while I was in HS back in the early 70’s, and there was never any big memorials. If you knew the person and were inclined to go to their funeral, then so be it. Most of the students always figured that it was their dumb assed choices that got those kids killed and we all just went about our business the next day.
Go look at the first posts how quickly you could be called racist back then
Man I hated that crap
Much better now
That’s a great website. I especially like the “Shot Placement” statistics. In order to get that data, I assume that the cops have to be somewhat cooperative. In Baltimore, you’re not likely to get much of anything from them.
Gotta disagree with this one. Not paying attention and exceeding the speed limit is a mistake. Stealing things or holding illegal drugs is a decision to break the law.
Robbing someone at gunpoint is a terrifying act of unmitigated violence.
Agree with you on this, and I'm not saying the situations you described in the first quote are the same as armed robbery, but a mistake is doing something accidentally or getting a question wrong.
I’m pretty sure the master of “Hey Jackass!” is or was a Chicago policeman.
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