You know, the story of the mom and her baby in the stroller in a Atlanta suburb, who were confronted by two African American teens playing hookey who wanted money, then shot the kid? You know, the story that the right wing has been flogging, pointing to this as why Zimmerman was justified in killing another black teen? You know.
Well, turn out that perhaps we don't know all of the story. Or, maybe we know it all too well:
New evidence....
More...
Two key quotes from the story:
In spite of the social media “outrage” and the right-wing media narrative, however, the Baby Santiago case only illustrates just how prevalent racism really is in the United States. Just days after Sherry West told police her 13 month old was shot and killed by two black teens, West’s 21 year old daughter went to police to tell them that she suspected her mother may have killed her infant brother. Ashley Glassey told CBS News in March, that her mother has serious mental health issues. These include a diagnosis of bi-polar with accompanying schizophrenic tendencies.
On July 16th further evidence was released to the public that implicates the parents involvement in the child’s death. Police tests immediately following the shooting revealed gun powder on the hands of both Sherry West and the baby’s father, Louis Santiago. Santiago claimed that he was nowhere near the scene of the shooting. This evidence too, was withheld for months, until the defense attorney in the case demanded that it be released in mid July.
So, maybe, MAYBE, the mom killed her child for insurance. Part of me wants to believe that this simply could not happen, but it has happened all too often. Remember Susan Smith who killed her kids and blamed a black man? Remember the kids in the Central Park rape (the subject of a Ken Burns documentary which I haven't seen yet, but plan to)? Hell, remember 'To Kill a Mockingbird'?
It is sad and scary both, but I WANT to believe that the two kids did it, because to believe that the baby's MOTHER did it is such a profoundly disturbing thought that it didn't even cross my mind when the incident happened last year. I've got a 15 year old daughter, and the thought of losing her is a fear that I experience every day she is at school or with friends or just not at home.
The cops, though. Cops should really be so familiar with people lying, with parents abusing their kids and blaming anyone but themselves, that perhaps they should have questioned the mom a bit more. Instead they looked for the kids who the mom said did it. Because killing your own child is just too inconceivable.
If it turns out that the mom DID do it (and I don't want to jump to the same conclusion that I did earlier... I want to wait for ALL the facts to come in), then a lot of people have a lot of apologizing to do. In my own way, I'll be apologizing too.
One more question: since this 'new' evidence has been out for more than a week, why hasn't this been given the same attention that the original story did?