Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 8, 1995 TAG: 9504100081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: FREDERICKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
More shocking, three men and three women customers stand by idly. When the youth leaves seconds later, his arms raised like a victorious boxer, the customers flee. None of them calls for help.
In this historic city of 25,000, where neighbors still gather at Goolrick's Pharmacy on the main street to read the newspaper, the spectacle of violence and callousness just past sunset Monday has evoked anger, disgust and alarm.
In an instant of inaction, a world already confused and ugly grew several degrees more threatening.
``It's shock. The first reaction the average citizen has is, they can't believe this guy would just walk in and beat up this woman for no reason,'' police spokesman James Shelhorse said in his office Friday, fielding calls from ``The Maury Povich Show,'' ``Hard Copy,'' ``CBS This Morning'' and Asia TV. ``Then none of the people went to see if she was OK. ... Somebody could have picked up a phone and called 911.''
Ever since the notorious Kitty Genovese case three decades ago, when 38 witnesses in New York City ignored Genovese's cries for help as she was stabbed to death, society has pondered what makes heroes act and others do nothing.
Every age has its reasons: In 1964, many people said it was not wanting to get involved, expecting that someone else in those crowded Queens apartment buildings would come to the rescue. Now people worry about becoming a victim themselves if they try to help; guns are everywhere, they say.
Marguerite Mills, 70, has tried to rationalize the aftermath of the crime, which left the store clerk cut, bruised and bloodied. ``I guess they feared he would have a knife or a gun,'' she said. ``When it comes right down to it, people don't think about other people the way they used to. We have just become blase. We want to think things like this happen in other countries, but they're happening here.''
A suspect was arrested Thursday, and faces charges of felonious assault and attempted robbery.
At the 7-Eleven, the woman who was on duty Monday night has returned to work, although she has kept a public silence.
But in the neighborhood that surrounds the Dixon Street store, there is a lingering sense of injury. On these blocks of modest brick houses and small lawns, residents wonder if the attack symbolizes something more, perhaps their own feelings of powerlessness. Recent years have brought crack cocaine to this area, and the problems that often accompany drugs have followed.
The apprehension is palpable, even on a sunny April afternoon. Mary, an elderly woman sitting on her porch a couple of blocks away, talked about the attack but wouldn't give her last name. She feared offending the drug dealers who have been arrested on her lawn.
``In this day and time, people are scared to do anything,'' she said. ``I would have just stood there.''
But the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star ended its lead editorial Friday with a troubling conclusion: ``If none of us act, then none of us are safe.''
by CNB