A Modern Tragedy

Came across the story below this morning. As the Dearly Beloved and I were discussing it I realised, yet again, why I love this man so much. We were laughing as we ticked off all the points that were red flags and how we could have made things SO much BETTER if only we could rule the world. “Laughing?” you ask. Yes, we laughed. Call us jaded if you want. But it was not happy laughter, it was a black laughter and laughter born of relief.
Relief that we don't have to work with that toxic waste any more. We did our time and did it honorably and well. As Andrew Vachss says, they ARE toxic waste, and we allow them to roam in society at our peril.
For this story, I will underline the parts where things went so wrong and then at the paragraph breaks...I'll write my suggestions for how they could have been made ever so much better in red.
2008-04-16 01:24:44By PAT EATON-ROBB Associated Press Writer
ROCKVILLE, Conn. (AP) — A sex offender accused of shooting his pregnant girlfriend in front of their two children told police the gun went off accidentally during an argument, according to a police report released Tuesday. OK, why is a SEX OFFENDER impregnating a woman, not once, not twice, but 3, count them THREE times? Why are they not married? Could it possibly be because she can receive more .gov benefits by remaining Unmarried? And then, he shoots her IN FRONT OF their CHILDREN!!!
Let me state here EMPHATICALLY, so that there is never any doubt in any one's mind EVER: shooting a child's parent in front of them is a trauma from which that child will never recover. Even with therapy, they will STILL have a monster called PTSD on their back. It will scar them in ways that are unfathomable to someone who has not experienced it. Even mental health professionals treating these patients as children or adults cannot understand the depths of pain they suffer. It is simply indescribable. It is my personal belief that anyone who commits an act this heinous, this emotionally and neurologically crippling [because this type of trauma carves a new neural “pathway” in the brain] should receive the death penalty.
We also have the lame excuse that anyone with an iota of firearms knowledge knows it complete bushwa about the gun going off “accidentally”.

Police responded to the Bidwell Tavern parking lot in Coventry on Monday afternoon on a report of a blood-spattered man threatening to kill himself while holding his 2-year-old son. Police said the man, Alfredo Ferrer, put the gun in his mouth at one point. SO here is sex offender Daddy, using 2 y.o. Son as a frickin' hostage! Whoa! That's gonna take him outta the running for Father of the Year Award. I wonder how many cops were praying “Please, please God, if he pulls the trigger, don't let the bullet exit his skull and hit that baby!”

Authorities said Ferrer, 43, told them during a standoff that he shot his girlfriend at their apartment near the restaurant. Officers said they eventually subdued him with a stun gun, and the child was taken to a hospital but appeared unharmed. His other child, who neighbors said is 5, also was with him, witnesses said. Damn stun guns! Without them the cops would have had to use REAL guns and this POS would be taking a dirt nap now and no longer be a menace to anyone, especially this girlfriend and his children! Again, he had his CHILD with him...and this one is MOST definitely old enough to remember all the juicy details of this nightmare of a day. I hope this perp becomes a dumping ground for every other inmate's bodily emissions of any sort.

The children's mother, 27-year-old Amanda Realie, was in extremely critical condition Tuesday at Hartford Hospital, authorities said. The hospital provided no information related to woman's fetus; neighbors said she is four to five months pregnant.
Ferrer told investigators he and Realie were fighting about her alleged drug use and his history as a sex offender, the report states. He said he went into his bedroom and smashed all his religious statues.
"Look at what you made me do," Ferrer told Realie, according to the police report. "The devil is in me.
Let's take a closer look at these statements, shall we? Are we to believe anything this lying, sex offender, who just tried to kill the Mother of his children says in a feeble attempt to justify his abominable actions? I think NOT.
Heaven forfend he take responsibility for his own actions...no it's what SHE made him do! PUHLEEZE!

Ferrer then picked up the 2-year-old and took a gun out of a filing cabinet, police said. He approached Realie and cocked the .38-caliber revolver's hammer and she tried to run out of the apartment, the report said. He told investigators he tried to hit Realie with the gun, but it went off in her face when she swung at it. This human waste picked up his son while he was about to kill the baby's MOTHER! Wanna bet me that child was screaming? Didn't think so. Even the dumbest of dumb criminals knows you do NOT cock a revolver unless you are about to pull the trigger. As she is running for the door, trying to get away from this maniac, he SAYS he tried to hit her and it was HER fault it went off b/c she swung at the revolver. Well, I may not be a firearms expert, and I may not be a physics expert, but the last time I checked, a trigger still has to be pulled for a handgun, even a revolver, to fire. So let's make NO mistake, this was NOT an “accidental discharge.” This was an INTENTIONAL shooting.

Ferrer sobbed but said nothing Tuesday as he was arraigned in Rockville Superior Court. He is charged with attempted murder, assault, assault of a pregnant person, risk of injury to minors, reckless endangerment and several firearms charges. He sobbed, yeah, of course he sobbed, for himself! Not for his girlfriend, not for his children, but because he was arrested! He was crying for himself! And all those charges, we call that “stacking” so that when it comes time to plea bargain, some charges can be dropped or combined without the prosecutor's office losing face and without losing any really serious time. Also, those firearms charges, federal law was violated since he is a convicted felon and he used a firearm. If they can find that he is the one who BOUGHT the firearm and lied on his 4473 form... which he would have had to do in order to buy it from a licensed dealer, then that's another federal firearms violation.

He did not enter a plea. He was ordered held in lieu of $1.25 million bond and is to return to court April 25. His public defender declined to comment.
Court officials said Ferrer was convicted in the 1980s of sexually assaulting a minor, then escaped while on a one-day furlough in 1991 and remained a fugitive until he was arrested for marijuana possession in New York in 2002. He was briefly reimprisoned. This whole paragraph is an illustration of the failure of the criminal justice system in CN and NY. Why was this mope not doing a whole new bit for escape? And did he bother to tell his [new?] girlfriend why he had been in prison?

Witnesses said the ordeal at the tavern began when a bloody Ferrer showed up just before 6 p.m. and tried to use the phone. Frightened patrons were herded into a basement and the doors were locked once Ferrer left. What in the name of all that's holy is wrong with these folks? Could they not have dog piled this critter and beat him into submission with those thick, heavy glass beer mugs? And I know I've never been in a bar that didn't have some kind of weapon hidden somewhere under the bar, in the back room, somefreakingwhere!!! What a bunch of sheeple!

Court officials said Ferrer had worked as a dishwasher at the tavern for several years. Employees there declined to comment Tuesday.
Neighbor Linda McMenimen, 52, who moved into the apartment below the couple about a year ago, said the couple often fought and that she called police last year to report one particularly violent argument.
She said Ferrer "came down here and said I'd better not call the cops again because he's on parole and he murdered someone." If he was on parole, why didn't the police contact the parole office for assistance in handling this offender. I hate to play the back in the day game..BUT I was always MORE than happy to help LEOs control my offenders by getting a no bail warrant when they were violating any condition of their parole. Incidents of domestic violence certainly qualify!

Another neighbor, Danielle Newton, said Realie had told her just hours before the shooting that she and Ferrer were doing well. Maybe Mr. Critter was somewhat less than honest in his report of how this tragedy occurred to the police, ya think? Maybe he's bettin' his gf's condition will deteriorate from “extremely critical” to “dead” and his will be the only version that matters.

"I know she was pregnant, and was very excited about that. She said she finally got her girl, or so she thought."
Coventry is a small town about 20 miles east of Hartford, not far from the main University of Connecticut campus.
(This version corrects that Ferrer escaped while on furlough, not from prison.)
So there you have it, folks. A Modern Tragedy of errors and missed opportunities. I know this was a long read and I thank you for your patience. I haven't been on a rant in a while...felt good to stretch those muscles.