Youth stabs intruder to death

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Sounds like a home invasion gone good . . . hope the 17 year old is properly supported by his family, and isn't harassed by the powers-that-be at his school.
 
Applause...

A round of Applause for this 17 year old hero. He had the presence of mind to do something and he did it. I salute him.
 
I appreciate that the author of the article continued to call the family "the victims" even after relating the portion of the story with the stabbing.

Had this been a Kali paper, it likely would've read, "The victim then tried to unlock the door and escape his vicious assailants, only to succumb to the horrific wounds on the murder's driveway."

Instead, it sounds like they got it right. Kudos to the kid for defending his family, kudos to the paper for reporting it correctly, and kudos to the police for seeing it for what it was.
 
Excellent.

You guys have got to read the comments that people have submitted; near the end of the list, a person claiming to be the sister of the assailant weighs-in with the usual blather.

It's tempting to rip her a new one, but I'm in too good of a mood today, myself.

Sawdust
 
Like I've always said, the family that slays together stays together.
Good on him.

Biker
 
I hope that they get that kid some counseling... Stabbing someone to death at 17 is something that is not easy to cope with in our society. It does help that he didn't have much of a choice, but better to be safe than sorry with the mental health of loved ones put in impossible situations.
 
Dude, bad guy and good guy entered a fight. good guy one. Don't try to force babying, touchy-feelies, or anything else on him.

If he needs counseling he will let someone know.
 
Smart kid ! At least he didn't worry about " Lowering himself to their level " !!
 
You guys have got to read the comments that people have submitted; near the end of the list, a person claiming to be the sister of the assailant weighs-in with the usual blather.
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I disagree. I think that her comments were about as mature as I've seen. Her points were all reasonable and without undue emotion - don't cheer the death of another human, realize that the 17yr old boy did what was needed and give him support, and so forth.

What could she have said better?
 
I hope that they get that kid some counseling... Stabbing someone to death at 17 is something that is not easy to cope with in our society. It does help that he didn't have much of a choice, but better to be safe than sorry with the mental health of loved ones put in impossible situations.
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Respectfully, I disagree. Forcing someone into counseling oftentimes just serves as the tramatizing event. If he chooses to take the view that "I defended my family. I am a better man for it." and he's mandated into counseling, it can serve to contradict his view, and supplant that with "I must have done something horrible to be forced into counseling. Oh my god, that man didn't deserve to die! I'm a murderer!".
THEN you seen the mental health.
Vicarious trauma sucks. I see it alot with sexual abuse survivors. Same general example...
 
+1 for vitamin G, There are many situations in which therapy can bring back the traumatic event/repressed memory and make it worse for the victim. Although it is usually hard to get someone to admit they need help I think the parents would watch and talk with their child closely after an event like that. Gosh I'm glad the police didn't hassel the boy or family. Also hopefully people at school leave him alone about it.
 
"He goes in to assist his stepfather," Gower said. "The juvenile delivers several blows to the suspect in the back. He (the assailant) is bleeding quite heavily, and the fight continues even after that."

After realizing he had lost his gun, the man tried to get out of the house but was so injured he could not get the deadbolt on the front door unlocked.

"The intruder was saying something like 'I want to go.'
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Now that's funny! - I'm sure he did want to leave once he realized his victims were fighting back!
 
good to sleep with a knife.. wonder what brand of hunting knife... ahh well it's great the he protected his family, thats why i sleep with a ka-bar, mom wont let me sleep with guns :(
 
Sad Story

From the posting of a person claiming to be the deceased's sister the families knew each other well. I certainly hope that 17 year old isn't living with the knowledge he killed someone who he considered a friend. However necessary it's regretable and at 17 it could be devistating if it was a friend.
 
Did anyone see "the gun wasn't even loaded" comment?

A truely sad story. I'm a residentual builder and I've seen some young guys who have worked for me in the past get hooked on crack cocaine. It's involves a total change of personality. You can't trust them any farther than you can see them and you better have eyes in the back of your head. Most crack heads give the secret up pretty quickly. They start missing work, frequently, with lame or no excuses. They stay broke, constantly. If you've got a guy calling you up Saturday morning wanting a loan, you've got a crackhead. Once I figure out what their problem is, they're gone. No second chances, no "I'm not on it anymore", gone. I've been cursed a couple of times and threatened, but none of them have ever tried to carry through with it. I had a guy I fired for drugs stop by my house a few weeks ago early on a Sunday morning. I think he was having some bad thoughts. I could see it on his face. I could also see it in his eyes when he decided it just wasn't worth the trouble. I'd have hurt him and he knew it.

I feel for both families. It sounds like the intruder's family knew he was on drugs and they probably blame themselves for not doing more to help. The terrible thing about the whole situation is that there's NOTHING you can do about it. The only thing that can cure crack addiction is pain and lots of it. Unfortunately, crackheads have an extremely high pain threshold. All the consuling and interdictions in the world won't do a bit of good. As a wise man once told me "once the pain outweighs the pleasure, that's when they'll stop". The best thing you can do for a drug addict is cut them loose. When you try to help, you aren't.

The relatives of the intruder said something to the effect that "he wasn't in his right mind." Believe me, he might have been crazy, but he had a plan. The wheels were spinning. He probably thought he had a brilliant plan at that. It might have been a simple robbery, but no one can say what would have happened if the victims hadn't any cash. A simple robbery could have quickly turned into a mass murder.

I applaud the other kid. It takes lots of guts to stab another human being. It takes lots of guts to get up and go after an armed man with only a knife. He definitely has "the right stuff".

I don't think that people who haven't seen it firsthand have any idea how powerful crack is and how evil it makes it's users. Any cop could tell you, but until you see it for yourself, you have no idea. It turns them into "a beast with the brain of a man but without any moral boundaries". If you ever have any dealings with one, remember that.

Sorry for the long post.
 
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The "counseling is only for blissninny wimps" brand of comment are, I am sad to say, far removed from reality. Unless you're a sociopath, a member of the Mongol horde or grew up in a truly depraved part of the criminal subculture killing a person is a really significant act. Police officers have all the support, training, preparation and social validation that a normal person could ask for. Many - good strong men and women - are never the same again after a good shoot. An awful lot of well-trained servicemen and women are shattered by what they do in war. It's not a sign of weakness or being a member of the wrong political party. It's just how the human brain works. Most of us really do find killing people distasteful even when there is no other choice.

If a grown man with plenty of experience and preparation can take psychic and spiritual damage from a lethal event I would hope that members of the High Road would extend the same compassion to a boy in the same situation. People who need counseling will ask for it? Generally not. If they did the mental health profession would be a whole lot easier. We still stigmatize mental and emotional conditions and look down on the people who suffer from them as witnessed by most of the comments here.

There is a thread running through this discussion that anyone weak enough to be affected by a self defense killing is somehow unmanly and "Not Like Us". Therapy just coddles the weaknesses and keeps a person from being a Real Manly Man(tm). That's certainly true in the same way that firearms training makes one violent, paranoid and prone to blast away at anything that moves, which is to say only if you are in the hands of a criminally incompetent professional. One of the first things a good therapist whether MD, MSW or PhD does is determine what treatment if any is needed. A constant part of the program is deciding when the client has reached the point of diminishing returns. And a huge part of it is getting the client to acknowledge what is really bothering him at three in the morning when he is alone with his thoughts and dealing with it.

We are social animals. One of the ways we deal with important or traumatic events is to look to our peers and those we look up to to see how they react. "Suck it up and move on" can be excellent advice or terribly destructive. So can "Talk about it". It takes discernment to figure out which approach is best in a particular case. It takes even more, and a good deal of maturity, to respond to the real needs of a person rather than seeking self-justification by treating him or her as a projection of one's own desires and idealized self image.
 
Don't try to force babying, touchy-feelies, or anything else on him.
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If the kid is functioning well - appetite OK, sleeping well, staying off drugs & drink, keeping grades up, and has a supportive family, there's no need to force him into counseling.

When I was in school, there were occasions when a kid died in an accident or something. Usually the teachers just said a few words of sympathy and everyone went about their business . . . nobody went off the deep end.

We're getting to the point where if a kid stubbs his toe they'll make a big deal out of it and bring in teams of psychologists, counselors, therapists, etc. There's a tacit assumption that today's kids have no mental resiliency, and a culture that teaches kids to be dependent on others for good feelings.

Too many people have too much faith in the practitioners of the pseudoscience known as "modern psychology."
 
I agree with the idea that he should not be FORCED into counseling. However, making counseling available and letting the kid know that there is no weakness in seeking such counseling is very important. Those who state that counseling should never be an option are just as misguided as those who say counseling should be mandatory.

I wish now that counseling had been available in 1960, but we didn't recognise then that there was such a phychic blow inflicted by an act of pure self-defense. I know all the mental tricks logically, but still awaken some nights. Logic and emotion are constantly at war with each other in the human mind and one or the other will always be ascendant.

Pops
 
Could be he needs counseling. Greasing someone with a knife is different from using a gun. It's much more personal - you get wet.
He needs to be watched closely.

Biker
 
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