Just Enough Time to Duck

This crime could happen to anyone. So many negative words labeling the man at the center of this true crime and his actions come to my mind.

A young couple—the father was 41 years old and the mother, 37 years old. In the backseat of their car as they parked near a pizza place were two of their three children—a son, age eleven, and a daughter, age seven.

The family was new to the area, moving there to be in a safer town than where they’d moved from.

The family was unaware that a man, heart-sick from being rejected by a woman, lay in wait to take his anger out on somebody. After the woman whom the man wanted to be with rejected him, he said multiple people would die because of what she’d done to him.

As the young family parked, the man came out of his hiding spot and murdered the father as he sat in their car. The mother took off running, I’m sure, to get the man away from her children. He chased her.

It’s unclear how law enforcement arrived so fast, but they saw the man shoot the mother and then turn his attention to the children. He shot at the kids, but they ducked and were unharmed.

A foot chase ensued. As the man ran away from the officers, he attacked a 75-year-old man. Bystanders tackled and disarmed him. The officers arrested him, and he stayed locked-up until his case made it to court.

His defense centered on his mental health—not taking his medication, drinking, and smoking weed. His attorney said they believed the state could prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. The man accepted a plea agreement rather than go to trial.

At the sentencing, the grandfather read a statement written by the young boy who had seen his parents murdered. In the statement, he’d said,

“There was just enough time for his sister and him to duck.”

The judge sentenced the man to two life sentences in prison for murdering the couple and an additional fifty years for attempting to shoot the children.

The children now live with their grandparents back in the city where the family had moved from.

Source: People, Law & Crime, WMTW 8 – ABC,

All data and information provided is for information and research purposes only and not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, or individual. Criminal cases may have been appealed or verdicts overturned since I researched the case. All information is provided on an as-is basis.