For what it's worth, since this thread started, I've posted 4 updates to the blog post at the top as more details came in.http://warrendale.blogspot.com/2009/...ting-at-w.html

A couple of the highlights:

  • DPD has located the green minivan that the 2 shooters drove off in;
  • They also obtained the surveillance tapes from the gas station;

There are also reports - both neighborhood gossip and details reported in the Freep - that this happened as a result of some argument or another that happened earlier at the school The bulk of the victims were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

There have been lots of posts placing blame on the families who should have raised these kids better, the police or the mayor. Quite frankly, I'm angry enough to blame all of them.

The parents should have done done a better job at raising their off-spring. They ought to occupy a jail cell right next to them.

However, the fact of the matter is that there are always going to crappy parents and people like the two individuals who did this shooting. This is why the police exist in the first place: to protect the rest of us from the results of bad parenting.

Let's not forget that this is the same neighborhood where, two years ago, two boys [[ages 11 and 13) were gunned in their own home by a group of drug dealers. There was a surge of police activity immediately after that shooting. The Mayor and the City Council spoke out about it. The Mayor even made a point of it in his State of the City Address a couple of weeks later.

A few days later, though, it was like nothing ever happened. The police were gone. The drug dealers and gangs were back, as if it was nothing but a minor interruption in their lives.

As president of the Warrendale Community Organization, I pleaded with the Mayor and the City Council to invest more of our tax dollars into public safety in the aftermath of that shooting. They ignored me.

For those who follow my blog, I have warned repeatedly that another shooting was almost inevitable. The conditions that gave rise to the March 2007 shooting are still present today.

Instead of investing our money in public safety, they spent $19 million in City funds on the Harmonie Park/Paradise Valley project, which has thus far yielded one new restaurant.

Instead of investing our money in public safety, they decided to fund 5 different economic development agencies - none of which are doing a very good job.

Instead of investing our money in public safety, they went off and did a few hundred other incredibly stupid things.

As far as I am concerned, the blood of these 7 teenagers is on their hands. They had the ability to act. They had the responsibility to act. They chose not to.

It's that simple.