Thursday, April 17, 2008
NBC4: Woman Found in Alley
Watch the video report. Apparently the woman's body found in an alley in the 1600 block of Montello was partially clothed. It appears she may have been engaged in prostitution. Her mother is interviewed in the video. The deceased woman was the 38 year old mother of 11 children. ANC Commissioner Rosetta Davis is also briefly interviewed. This is not being reported as a sex crime, but solely as a very brutal murder [the victim was beaten beyond recognition]. Video link is now working.
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28 comments:
Not to be picky, but the title of this makes it sound like the woman worked for NBC4.
Sorry, I forgot my colon.
My guess is the recent violence is limited to a few "problem houses" on the block with wannabe gangstas dealing drugs out of the house/street corner. Turf wars and collateral damage ensues when the weather gets warm. Never ceases to amaze me how the neighbors enable it by not talking to the police. Two steps forward one step back...
Despite this woman's lifestyle and the fact that she had eleven children (is this really right?), no one deserves to beaten beyond recognition and murdered in an alley. This story is unbelievably sad. I hope her 11 children have a chance and make better choices than she did.
JJ,
Read the post again.
This is not drug related or weather related. This is a sociopathic act.
In fact soul searcher you should read read MY post again.
The original news report does not give an indication as to why the homicide occurred (money, drugs, argument?). And if you read my post you will see that I: 1.) was commenting broadly about the recent violence and not solely about the woman in the alley; and 2.) prefaced my comment by saying "MY GUESS IS" -- b/c no one, at this point, knows exactly why the woman was killed.
Try to get your facts straight before you correct someone. Otherwise, you look like idiot.
the part that hit me is the part about her screams being heard and ignored by a few people in nearby houses. dc apathy at its worst. very sad....
that's the crappy thing about "gentrification". it always gets worse, right before it gets better.
lots of tension, and ignorant, crime driven people take it to the streets.
in a very odd way, it's a good sign.
i know that sounds sick....
I actually get PooPoo's comment here. This crime just seems SO heinous, could it actually be the tipping point of things ultimately getting better. I mean, it doesn't get much worse than this one.
And I thought the 'despite her lifestyle' comment was disgusting. It only gets worse. This is a dead mother, not a good sign for gentrification. If this had been a lawyer or a lobbyist there'd be a god damn candlelight vigil. I'm just sad. Please just be sad. Or angry.
Sorry Anonymous 10:24 - while NO ONE has said she deserved this (because she didn't), the lawyer or lobbyist made different life choices, so you're right, there probably would have been a candelight vigil. Like it or not, to many, her life will SEEM less valuable. I just pray that her children make better choices.
Maybe there should be a candelight vigil for all the recent victims of crime in Trinadad. I don't know the answer - does a vigil really do any good anyway?
JJ,
Name calling is for children. I don't "look like" anything because we are exchanging words on a screen.
The post in question is about a mother of 11 children who was beaten to death. Your lumping her murder in with other murders and pointlessly speculating that all the "recent" murders may be drug related is pointless gossip. You have no facts to base your assertion on and clearly have nothing to add to THIS PARTICULAR THREAD. See, Inked separates the posts so that people can respond to posts one at a time. You might have meant to put your pointless "possibly drug related" theory in another post where the murder might actually be likely to involve a drug transaction based on, oh, say, actual facts presented in the post to which you're responding.
Learn how a blog works before you respond, why don't you?
And keep the pre-school insults to yourself.
This has nothing to do with gentrification. Where do you all get this stuff from? The woman was found BEATEN BEYOND ALL RECOGNITION. That is a sociopathic act. It can occur in any neighborhood, anywhere. What on earth does gentrification have to do with it?
As for the value of her life, anyone who can't see the value of the life of a mother of 11 children is callous beyond belief.
Here we go, people trying to ignore the FACTS. MOST murders in this city are drug related. MOST are committed by African American men. MOST people in prison are African American men. Denying these FACTS does not help anyone. Your energy would be much better spent if we focused on the cause of these FACTS. To deny them means they will never go away because you can't even admit they exist.
Like I said in the other post- both murders that happened this week is sad regardless forget the fact that it happened in our neighborhood. Another point to make is the female victim(mother of 11) did not have custody of any of her kids.
The issues we need to be discussing is the lack of police patrols in the neighborhod.As well the failure of residents coming forth with information on these crimes.
Trinidad Home Owner
Most murders in this city are drug related [around 85 percent as estimated by an experienced AUSA I know who handles homicides]. Most murders in this city are committed by African American males, and most victims are African American males. These are just statistics in DC. And they partly reflect demographics of race and poverty in this city. That said, we're talking about one murder and you've got to be careful trying to use statistic for a whole city to bring answers to one crime.
There has been no mention of drug paraphernalia or sales in the case of this woman. There has been suggestion that she may have been a sex worker. Many women who work the street like that have drug issues, and that's part of the reason they do what they do. So I suppose you might uncover a drug angle there. But I've yet to see any information suggesting that this was a drug deal gone bad, or anything to that effect.
What I see is a horribly tragic waste of life, and it's going to have a permanent and profound impact on, at the least, her mother and her children. I'm sorry that this woman, who I take from her mother's comments to have been troubled, was in the situation she was in.
I'm horrified and angry that someone could beat to death another human being and stuff her body under an ice cream truck in an alley like so much improperly disposed of garbage. It's sick, and deathly cold.
I'm also horrified and angry that at least one person reportedly heard her screams and then ignored them. To me that's also both sick and horribly chilling. You've got to call the police. Also keep your porch light and rear light on. If you don't have a rear light, you should get one. There is currently a group working on Light Up the Night in Trinidad. I'm always amazed at how many people don't turn on a porch light at night. It's a small thing, and pretty damn cheap, but it can matter a lot.
If you hear gun shots [which there were not in this case], or what sounds like gunshots, please call the police. You might save the life of someone lying in the street, or alley, bleeding. Also call the police if you notice clearly school age children hanging out on the street during school hours. This kind of thing is everyone's problem and we all hurt, one way or another, when any incident of it is ignored.
As for Poo Poo's comment. I don't think this is a gentrification related crime in that we aren't talking about a surge in burglaries or robberies [and I know that isn't quite what he means]. As for shocking people with horrific crimes, it can make a difference, as shown with the teenage triple slaying in Newark. But I don't think that's what's going to happen here. It's possible we're just seeing some sort of statistical blip in this violent week. These crimes don't appear to be linked by too much more that location and murder.
Inked said, "What I see is a horribly tragic waste of life, and it's going to have a permanent and profound impact on, at the least, her mother and her children."
Sadly, this was the case BEFORE she was mudered. Once murdered, it brought one "horribly tragic waste of life" to a sad and final conclusion. Another "horribly tragic waste of life" is still out there - her killer.
Lets work together in hopes that her 11 children won't be 11more "horribly tragic wastes of life."
Gee, soul searcher, I didn't know you were the keeper of the blog rules. So sorry I offended your delicate sensibilities and actually posted a comment that went slightly beyond the post topic -- O, THE HORROR!!
Lets get real here -- chances are drugs were in some way related to this crime (even though there is no evidence of that thus far). Chances are a lot of these types of crimes could be avoided if people in the neighborhood talked to police or at least called the police when they apparently hear screams nearby.
So, I don't think my comments were pointless gossip. On the other hand, calling the crime a sociopathic act is a little like saying the murder is bad. Of course murder is a sociopathic act and is bad -- nobody would argue that b/c its so completely obvious.
The only thing that makes me angry about this woman’s death is that no one called 911 when they heard screaming outside.
I am having a very hard time being sad or angry about a dead woman who irresponsibly birthed ELEVEN kids (who she could not take care of—guess who is footing the bill for their care?).
This may sound harsh, but when I think about how badly she must have been hurting when she did die, all I have to do is think about how badly her kids must have felt when they realized that their mom couldn’t take care of them. Does it even out?
"I am having a very hard time being sad or angry about a dead woman who irresponsibly birthed ELEVEN kids (who she could not take care of—guess who is footing the bill for their care?)."
It never ceases to amaze me how cruel and cold people can be in the world. And I doubt you'd ever say that with a name, anonymous. Seeing her mother overcome with grief and tears in that video shows that this woman was someone's daughter, someone's mother. How would you feel if your mother, daughter, sister, any female relative was murdered so gruesomely?
It doesn't matter how this woman lived her life---murder is tragic no matter who the victim is. I hope her killer is found.
Wow, is really all I can say. I've held out commenting, because I don't see this as a story. I saw it as a loss of life. I've read the other articles and find some of the reactions to be repugnant, small, and dare I say typical. Some of you actually care albeit in a patronizing fashion, about each other, and about the locals that have been here for years. Some of you treat them the way the Native Americans were treated by the National Museum of Natural history - Savages to be observed behind the safety of glass.
Being a local, but an outsider I didn't grow up with the knowledge of crimes like this. I don't know if there is away to make sense of this.
I suppose one can hide in statistics about black violence, but as sterile as that appears it is its own brand of bias. Or maybe its simply revealing what people do, and where and when they do it. Maybe the truth is in the facts, although facts can be shaped to fit most truths. That sounds like religion.
This woman was killed. Isn't that enough? Do we have to be so cold, unfeeling and damn tacky to belittle the event by insulting her. A life was lost, it's not about a colon, or stats, or who's right or the other BS those of us with the discretionary income available to afford access to the internet seem to conjure up.
Her life was not more or less valuable than the lives of a Drug dealer, a small child, a coal miner, or some one's mother - daughter - friend.
Life by it's vary force has value and when it's gone we should mourn.
Just mourn.
-Robby
This morning, the Post reported an arrest in the case.
Chris,
Thanks. But I can't find the story. Do you have the link?
Inked -- it wasn't in its own story. I stumbled across it while reading another story in the dead tree version. I went looking for it online and finally found it, although it took some real searching. See the third-to-last paragraph of this story. To quote:
"Last night, D.C. police arrested Oliver Jones, 50, and charged him with first-degree murder in connection with the death of Tonette Gail Ferguson, 38, whose body was found with fatal blunt-force trauma to the head Wednesday in an alley in the 1600 block of Montello Avenue. Jones, of the 1100 block of Queen Street NE, was apprehended about 7 p.m. on Ainger Place SE, about an hour after police said he was being sought on an arrest warrant."
Thanks.
Robby said, "I suppose one can hide in statistics about black violence, but as sterile as that appears it is its own brand of bias. Or maybe its simply revealing what people do, and where and when they do it. Maybe the truth is in the facts, although facts can be shaped to fit most truths."
Robby, you present a very eloquent argument and your point is well taken about our need to mourn the loss of this human life.
As to your comment about hidding in the "statistics of black violence" -- since today is Earth Day, do you believe that the Earth is flat or round? Because if you believe that it is flat, there's no arguing the facts with you that the Earth needs help - since you're already convinced that the world is flat. If however you believe the the world is round, as proven, then maybe we can come to some common understanding using the facts how we can help solve her problems.
I don't see this as any different then trying to work together to try and figure out what the root causes and possible solutions to proven statistics of black-on-black crime that is so prevelant throughout our country. For people to continue to deny the facts or say they're skewed to fit a particular truth, means the problems are never going be solved because we're too busy arguing over what the "facts" are.
If I have the "facts" wrong about black on black violence, inner city drug use, and the prison population, please educate me. If I am correct with my "facts", please work with me on how we can change them. I'm not sure what else to do beyond that.
Why the assumption that this is black on black? Do we know for a fact that the killer was black, he was just identified. What about a crime against a woman? I think there are alot of categories that this particular crime could be put into....enough of the facts and circumstances are not yet known to make assumptions.
Hell since it's my birthday I will post thrice. Here's the deal, there is no "them" in community. Since I am a black male, albeit gay and thefore not black enough for some, I still get pulled over and called a nigger so I presume I am black still. Oh well.
Your last comment about black men, as them. Is part of the the problem. Children are children, and while I don't like children, I know that we all have to take care and concern around them. Are they people, and do they make choices, sure. And am I saying that they have no choice but to follow the dark side, no. I am saying that here we are, at the dawn of a death. Let's mourn. I don't have solution for black crime. I also don't have a solution for the white, asians and latinos that come into the ghetto to buy drugs. I see them too, as clearly as I see the brothas on the corner.
So to all of you coming to Trinidad to buy drugs, please know that I do write down your tag numbers and I send that information to the police.
-Robby
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