There was little attempt to save the life of LaShanda Calloway, a Wichita woman who was stabbed and lay dying in a convenience store while spectators stepped over her. On June 23, Calloway, 27, was stabbed during an altercation in the store. Two minutes later, someone decided to call 911. Surveillance video in the store shows at least five shoppers walking over her body and one even stopping to take a picture of the victim with a cell phone, though no one thought to actually treat her wounds or comfort her. Even the story itself was not widely reported until a reporter for the Wichita Eagle remarked on the contents of the surveillance video.
The scene took place before 6 p.m. that day when the two women, Calloway and a 19-year-old woman with a knife got into a fight which resulted in Calloway’s being stabbed. At 5:58 p.m., fellow customer Rob Thurman dialed 911 after separating the two women before the stabbing took place. At 6 p.m., firefighters arrived at the scene, the fire station being located just five blocks from the scene, but despite Thurman’s waving at them to come in to help Calloway, they stood outside and waited for the Kansas Highway Patrol to arrive. This behavior is typical for firefighters. While they are trained to be the first medical responders, they don’t have any means of defense so they are told to stand off the scene until police secure the scene. At 6:04, firefighters were finally able to treat Calloway who by this time was near cardiac arrest. She later died at the hospital.
Later, the 19-year-old woman was charged with first-degree murder, and another suspect turned himself in and has not yet been charged. The district attorney will decide if any of the neglectful shoppers could be charged as well. Currently, neglecting to help an injured person is only considered an offense if dealing with an auto accident. Thurman said that had he known that help for Calloway would be delayed both by the customers and the fire department that he would have driven her to the hospital himself. At the same time, it is scary to think that even in a store full of people, no one is willing to help a person in need.
For related articles visit
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287953,00.html and http://www.topix.net/content/kri/2007/06/stabbing-response-illustrates-quandary
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1 user commented in " Convenience Store Stabbing Victim Ignored By Fellow Shoppers "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThis story reminds me of the inmate mentality of not getting involved in anything unless it directly involves you. Any contact with the police whatsoever could have resulted in one of those shoppers getting his probation or parole revoked. These people know the system pretty well, and so they did the math and somehow IT MADE SENSE for them to let her die. To me, this is not really a reflection on the individuals themselves, but the politics of the social dynamics which they are forced to abide by.
ANY police contact whatsoever could result in being locked up yourself, or even falsely accused. To be honest, I think that only a very brave person would have helped the dieing woman in that neighborhood.
I could be wrong but I think I am at least partly right. This tragedy is partly the result of having so many people being processed through prison system and being sucked in to prison culture. This is the type of story you would expect to see occuring INSIDE prison walls.
This is the result of “tough on crime” policies which place zero emphasis on rehabilitation or reintegration. This is exactly what you can expect to see as we build more and more prisons, processing more and more people with NO emphasis on getting them reintegrated through work and school. Unfortunately, I would expect to see more of this.
Sad but true. What surprises me is that so many people are surprised by it. Sometimes, there are some very good reasons why people dont want to get involved. If you’re a felon you might not want to give first aid due to the possibility that you could be accused of a crime somehow, and if you are a sex offender then certainly you would probably be well advised to let her die and just keep walkin, do not under any circumstances get involved with a dead female. Your social status as a piece of human garbage supercedes any higher moral imperatives to save her life. Very sad consequence indeed.
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