The tragic, infuriating murder of Marvel Johnson
Barb ShellyKansas City begins the new year with another outrageous waste of a human life. You can read about it here.
Why on earth would one young man shoot another in apparent response to an innocent question? Who is this person walking around with a gun? Where did the gun come from?
As usual in these cases, we have too many questions and not enough answers. Maybe the shooter himself doesn’t know why he did such a thing.
All we know is that Marvel Johnson, described by people who knew him as a sweet young man who loved to sing, is dead at age 20. He was shot by a stranger after he inquired as to whether the other man knew anything about car prowlers on the block. The shooter instructed two children to run, then shot Johnson as he took off running, police said.
There is no excuse for such a death, no plausible explanation, and it is incredibly frustrating that these homicides continue as the underlying story in Kansas City. No matter what happens in City Hall this year, or in the Sprint Center or in the neighborhoods, the city’s narrative will forever by too many deaths which shouldn’t have happened.
Phil Cardarella
4 months, 3 weeks agoI guess we can thank God and the NRA that the young man who was questioned had a firearm readily available with which to defend himself and his honor…Oh, wait…
George Hunsucker
Northland
4 months, 3 weeks agono phil, thank the lib educational establishment for “educating” yet another troubled youth, and your lib entitlement society for accepting it……. OH, wait…..
Suzanne Conaway
4 months, 2 weeks agoPhooey, you guys. This isn’t a war between liberal and conservative. This is an incident where one person could not see another person as a human being.
I do not agree with 99% og the NRA’s excuses for gun violence. However, I do agree that people are losing the ability to view each other as human beings. In India, in Ohio, even in Kansas City, people use their cell phones to record videos of people dying or being raped rather than calling for help.
When we stop viewing other people as objects, easy murders are, well, easy.