Mark Tyson
Member
Posted on Sun, Nov. 16, 2003 story
UB_DESC
CULTURE OF VIOLENCE
Episodes of irrational rage behind recent killings
By DANIEL de VISE
[email protected]
Is a ding-dong-ditch, loud music or a slow-moving line reason to kill? Police say South Floridians have died violent deaths for those reasons in episodes of irrational rage.
Jay Steven Levin is accused of shooting a boy dead over a ding-dong-ditch. Seymour Schuss allegedly clocked a fellow retiree for taking too long in the ticket line. Kevin Evers allegedly killed three people for playing loud music.
Those are the allegations in three recent homicide cases, all involving victims who died in bursts of irrational rage over seemingly minor transgressions.
Some see an erosion of civility in society at the heart of such eruptions. Others cite Sept. 11, recession-related angst, gun ownership or a certain bad-boy element in South Florida culture.
Whatever the reason, a thread of violent, disproportionate rage runs through several recent homicides in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. Road rage, it seems, has jumped the curb.
''I just lost it,'' Richard Day allegedly told police after the 59-year-old Tamarac man ran down a neighbor with his truck in late 2001. The triggering incident: some kids had egged his home.
A sampling of similar cases:
• Fernand Thelusma, 49, of Miami stabbed a co-worker in the face with a knife Nov. 6 when she refused to drive him to work, Broward Sheriff's Office officials said.
• Jay Steven Levin, 40, shot a 16-year-old boy in the back last month after the teen knocked on his Boca Raton door and ran, investigators said.
• Seymour Schuss, 68, fatally punched 74-year-old Irving Rosenberg on the chin last November in a dispute over whether Rosenberg was taking too long to buy movie tickets at a Tamarac theater, police said.
All of the cases involve defendants with little or no criminal past. All escalated from disputes that were indisputably trivial.
THE LAST STRAW
Researchers who study violent outbursts in the workplace and on the roads say the incidents are seldom as simple as they appear. From the attacker's vantage point, the trivial incident may be the last straw at the end of a terrible day, or month, or year.
''It's usually someone who has just had a very bad series of events in a short time,'' said DeAnna Beckman, executive director of the University of Cincinnati Center for Threat Assessment. ``Their coping skills, for whatever reason, have been maxed out.''
The research center helps employers reduce the risk of workplace violence, partly by identifying warning signs that a worker could become violent.
Day, now serving life in prison, may provide a textbook example. It was a month after the Sept. 11 hijackings, and he had endured heart surgery, a business bankruptcy and an attempted suicide. On Halloween night, Day went out to retaliate against some neighbors who had egged his home.
RAMMED WITH TRUCK
When a neighbor emerged from his house to confront him, Day rammed the man with his Dodge Dakota.
In such cases, a trivial incident -- an egging -- can come to symbolize much larger frustrations and provide an easy outlet for the angry person to vent. Robert Campbell, dragged to his death, wasn't even involved in the Halloween pranks.
''There's something larger that's going on in their lives,'' said Brendan Furnish, a retired sociology professor from Westmont College in California who has studied the ethics of handgun ownership. ``And the trivial incident crystalizes that.''
Few of the other cases are so well-documented.
Levin, a Boca Raton accountant charged Thursday with manslaughter, had made two previous calls to police to report vandalism on his home, both involving broken windows. He told investigators he shot Mark Andrew Drewes in the ding-dong-ditch prank -- the teenager supposedly was attempting to ring his bell and run -- because he saw something in his hand that might have been a weapon.
Does this suggest a similar pattern of escalating rage?
''I don't have any clue,'' said Robert Montgomery, attorney for the dead boy's family. ``It's a nice neighborhood. It's not a neighborhood in which you could possibly anticipate violence like that.''
SQUABBLED FOR DAYS
Thelusma, who allegedly stabbed 45-year-old Claudette Elise in the head Nov. 6, had been squabbling with her for several days over carpool arrangements, according to their boss at The Great American Smoked Fish Co. in Pompano Beach.
Thelusma, who also stabbed himself, has been charged with attempted murder and will be held without bail when he is released from the hospital, sheriff's spokesman Jim Leljedal said.
Elise works with smoked fish, while Elise scales fresh fish in a different section of the company. Both are three-year employees, said Stanley Pfeffer, an owner of the business. As far as he knows, they're just friends. Thelusma showed no previous signs of substance abuse or emotional troubles.
''Was there something beneath the surface?'' Pfeffer said. ``You have to guess so.''
Evers, charged with murder in the Miami Beach slayings, had no serious criminal background in Florida. But he had gotten in a tiff with a Coral Springs mall retailer just a week before the shooting, prompting a trespassing warning against him.
Schuss, awaiting trial for manslaughter in the death of Rosenberg last November at Tamarac Cinema 5, allegedly attacked the fellow senior after Rosenberg exchanged words with Schuss' wife. Rosenberg was taking a long time to buy his tickets.
Schuss, a grandfather retired from the pharmaceutical industry, had never before been in trouble with the law.
''People don't generally explode in this type of rage without there being some far more deeply embedded problems,'' said Michael Sobel, attorney for the Rosenberg family. ``You let me know when you figure it out.''
UB_DESCCULTURE OF VIOLENCE
Episodes of irrational rage behind recent killings
By DANIEL de VISE
[email protected]
Is a ding-dong-ditch, loud music or a slow-moving line reason to kill? Police say South Floridians have died violent deaths for those reasons in episodes of irrational rage.
Jay Steven Levin is accused of shooting a boy dead over a ding-dong-ditch. Seymour Schuss allegedly clocked a fellow retiree for taking too long in the ticket line. Kevin Evers allegedly killed three people for playing loud music.
Those are the allegations in three recent homicide cases, all involving victims who died in bursts of irrational rage over seemingly minor transgressions.
Some see an erosion of civility in society at the heart of such eruptions. Others cite Sept. 11, recession-related angst, gun ownership or a certain bad-boy element in South Florida culture.
Whatever the reason, a thread of violent, disproportionate rage runs through several recent homicides in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. Road rage, it seems, has jumped the curb.
''I just lost it,'' Richard Day allegedly told police after the 59-year-old Tamarac man ran down a neighbor with his truck in late 2001. The triggering incident: some kids had egged his home.
A sampling of similar cases:
• Fernand Thelusma, 49, of Miami stabbed a co-worker in the face with a knife Nov. 6 when she refused to drive him to work, Broward Sheriff's Office officials said.
• Jay Steven Levin, 40, shot a 16-year-old boy in the back last month after the teen knocked on his Boca Raton door and ran, investigators said.
• Seymour Schuss, 68, fatally punched 74-year-old Irving Rosenberg on the chin last November in a dispute over whether Rosenberg was taking too long to buy movie tickets at a Tamarac theater, police said.
All of the cases involve defendants with little or no criminal past. All escalated from disputes that were indisputably trivial.
THE LAST STRAW
Researchers who study violent outbursts in the workplace and on the roads say the incidents are seldom as simple as they appear. From the attacker's vantage point, the trivial incident may be the last straw at the end of a terrible day, or month, or year.
''It's usually someone who has just had a very bad series of events in a short time,'' said DeAnna Beckman, executive director of the University of Cincinnati Center for Threat Assessment. ``Their coping skills, for whatever reason, have been maxed out.''
The research center helps employers reduce the risk of workplace violence, partly by identifying warning signs that a worker could become violent.
Day, now serving life in prison, may provide a textbook example. It was a month after the Sept. 11 hijackings, and he had endured heart surgery, a business bankruptcy and an attempted suicide. On Halloween night, Day went out to retaliate against some neighbors who had egged his home.
RAMMED WITH TRUCK
When a neighbor emerged from his house to confront him, Day rammed the man with his Dodge Dakota.
In such cases, a trivial incident -- an egging -- can come to symbolize much larger frustrations and provide an easy outlet for the angry person to vent. Robert Campbell, dragged to his death, wasn't even involved in the Halloween pranks.
''There's something larger that's going on in their lives,'' said Brendan Furnish, a retired sociology professor from Westmont College in California who has studied the ethics of handgun ownership. ``And the trivial incident crystalizes that.''
Few of the other cases are so well-documented.
Levin, a Boca Raton accountant charged Thursday with manslaughter, had made two previous calls to police to report vandalism on his home, both involving broken windows. He told investigators he shot Mark Andrew Drewes in the ding-dong-ditch prank -- the teenager supposedly was attempting to ring his bell and run -- because he saw something in his hand that might have been a weapon.
Does this suggest a similar pattern of escalating rage?
''I don't have any clue,'' said Robert Montgomery, attorney for the dead boy's family. ``It's a nice neighborhood. It's not a neighborhood in which you could possibly anticipate violence like that.''
SQUABBLED FOR DAYS
Thelusma, who allegedly stabbed 45-year-old Claudette Elise in the head Nov. 6, had been squabbling with her for several days over carpool arrangements, according to their boss at The Great American Smoked Fish Co. in Pompano Beach.
Thelusma, who also stabbed himself, has been charged with attempted murder and will be held without bail when he is released from the hospital, sheriff's spokesman Jim Leljedal said.
Elise works with smoked fish, while Elise scales fresh fish in a different section of the company. Both are three-year employees, said Stanley Pfeffer, an owner of the business. As far as he knows, they're just friends. Thelusma showed no previous signs of substance abuse or emotional troubles.
''Was there something beneath the surface?'' Pfeffer said. ``You have to guess so.''
Evers, charged with murder in the Miami Beach slayings, had no serious criminal background in Florida. But he had gotten in a tiff with a Coral Springs mall retailer just a week before the shooting, prompting a trespassing warning against him.
Schuss, awaiting trial for manslaughter in the death of Rosenberg last November at Tamarac Cinema 5, allegedly attacked the fellow senior after Rosenberg exchanged words with Schuss' wife. Rosenberg was taking a long time to buy his tickets.
Schuss, a grandfather retired from the pharmaceutical industry, had never before been in trouble with the law.
''People don't generally explode in this type of rage without there being some far more deeply embedded problems,'' said Michael Sobel, attorney for the Rosenberg family. ``You let me know when you figure it out.''
like you weren't constantly jumping in front of everybody causing them to slam on their brakes. You ever meet me sitting in that line you won't get by anyway... 
