Category: Americas

Being somebody that follows politics, you’d think that I’d be used to some things not making any sense after all this time. But there are some things that will get into your head and just won’t let go of your brain.

If you live in London — or even near it, for that matter — you likely know by now about what happened to Kelly Johnson and David Lucio. Just after midnight last night, the van that Lucio was driving slammed into an apartment building on Picton St. Neighbours rushed to the scene to be confronted with a gruesome sight. Both Lucio and Johnson dead from gunshot wounds.

Johnson’s service weapon was on her lap.

Speculation is that it’s a case of murder/suicide but, as Chief Murray Faulkner pointed out: “we need to have proof, not just speculation, not just opinion.” Amen to that. The fact is that, right now, nobody’s sure of anything…

‘An irrational act’

Fri, June 8, 2007

Top-ranking female officer, retired superintendent found in scene of horror The service pistol used belonged to Kelly Johnson, a leader in fighting domestic violence.

By RANDY RICHMOND AND KELLY PEDRO, SUN MEDIA

Acting Insp. Kelly Johnso

Just before London police’s “rising female star” and her ex-lover, a retired officer, were killed in a murder- suicide, she made a mysterious stop at the police station. Then, Acting Insp. Kelly Johnson, the force’s highest- ranking female officer, jumped into a waiting van. Minutes later, two gunshots were fired inside a van before it crashed into a brick wall six blocks away from the station, outside Johnson’s apartment building at 7 Picton St. Stunned neighbours found Johnson, 40, dead, her face bloody, her 9 mm Glock service pistol — which she wasn’t authorized to have with her — on her lap. Beside her, the driver of the van and her ex-lover, retired superintendent David Lucio, 57, was slumped over with what witnesses called a bullet wound to the head.

I’m tempted, at first sight, to say that it must be just what it looks like. But that nagging little voice in the back of my head just won’t shut up. And the more I read, the louder it gets.

Did I really wimp out?

That’s what I’ve been getting asked over and over again since I posted the day before yesterday about the 13-year girl from Medicine Hat. Her trial began on three charges of first degree murder for the deaths of her parents and eight year-old brother.

Yeah, that girl.

Everybody was real quick to point out to me that I’ve never had any problem posting the identities of teenage killers in the past whenever it had already been published in the MSM. They also point out that, while I did remove the identities of Peter Whitmore’s victims from the posts that I made in reference to that case, I’ve never bothered tidying up posts on juvenile criminals after they get caught. Well, let’s face it, boys and girls: all the wishful, hug-a-thug, warm, fuzzy thinking in the world isn’t gonna shove the genie back into the bottle. Everybody knows that Todd Cameron Smith was the one that shot up that high school in Taber, hitting three students and killing one. We know this because his mug was on the front page of every paper in Ontario after he escaped from custody in August of 2005.

So why the hell am I going so easy on this kid all of a sudden? And, seemingly the most popular question: would I be so discreet with her identity if she had been a teenage boy??

Alright, I admit it: that one got me thinking. Am I going easy on her because she’s a girl? And why the hell is it that whenever I think about this case, I find myself being more critical of her father (one of the murder victims!) than I am of her!? I think to myself, “This man knew damned well what Jeremy Steinke was, and what the sonofabitch was up to with his daughter. How the hell could he let that God damned child molester anywhere within five miles of his little girl? Didn’t this guy own a shotgun??” Do I really have my head up my ass on this one? Am I allowing myself to be influenced by the fact that I come from the same hometown as Steven Truscott? He has the distinction of being the youngest person in Canadian history to be wrongly convicted of murder. He was only 14 years old when he heard his sentence:

“Steven Murray Truscott,” Judge Ferguson began, “I have not alternative but to pass the following sentence upon you. The jury have found you guilty after a fair trial.

“The sentence of this court upon you is that you be taken from here to the place from whence you came and there be kept in close confinement until Tuesday, the 8th day of December, 1959, and upon that day and date you be taken to the place of execution and that you there be hanged by the neck until you are dead.

“And may the Lord have mercy upon your soul.”

I’ve been thinking about that for nearly two days now, ever since a friend of mine brought it up about an hour after I put up the post. And after all that, the answer is “no.” I do not have my head up my ass.

There’s just too damned much about this case that I don’t know; too many questions that haven’t been answered to my satisfaction. But that might change. The judge has decided to deny the outright publication ban that the defence was asking for:

Reporters and other members of the public won’t be banned from the courtroom during the first week of a 13-year-old girl’s trial on charges that she murdered her parents and little brother.

Justice Scott Brooker of Court of Queen’s Bench in Medicine Hat says the defence failed to prove that a ban was needed during this week’s hearing, which is being held to determine what evidence should be permitted at the trial itself.

So we will get more information as time passes. Who knows? Maybe she’s innocent, maybe she really is guilty, after all. And yes, her name and photograph may well end up here someday.

Just not today.

Here’s something unusual.  It’s not too damned often that I manage to come across something that makes me feel uncomfortable writing about.  Disgusted, annoyed, outraged, or just plain old fashioned pissed off; those happen all the time.  It’s one of the things about being a grouchy bugger with a net connection: I get to take my opinions and inflict them on the rest of you.  And everybody knows that opinions are like arseholes: everybody’s got one and mine don’t stink.  So I usually have no problems spouting off without feeling any of that self-doubt crap that the touchy-feely crowd loves so much.

But being uncomfortable about writing/ranting something?  That’s a rare one.

Everybody and their dog knows by now that the trial is about to begin in the matter of the Richardson family murders in Medicine Hat…

MEDICINE HAT, ALTA. — A first-degree murder trial begins today for a 13-year-old girl accused of slaughtering her parents and little brother in a case that has stunned this southern Alberta city.

[…]The accused was 12 years old and in Grade 7 when her family members were found dead in their home in April 2006. Her brother was eight. He was buried with his parents in Sudbury, where the family lived before moving to Alberta in the late 1990s.

The girl, who cannot be identified under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Her co-accused, and boyfriend at the time of the incident, 24-year-old Jeremy Steinke, faces the same murder charges. He will be tried later as an adult.

[…]Steinke told friends he was a 300-year-old werewolf who liked the taste of blood. The two also left an Internet trail, posting pictures and messages on websites such as VampireFreaks.com.

[…]Sanjeev Anand, a criminal law expert at the University of Alberta, says the case is unique for Canada.

“I don’t remember in recent history, a person that young being charged with multiple murders.”

Most people know that I’m no fan of the YCJA, especially when it comes to violent crime.  And it’s not like anybody that wants to know the accused girl’s name can’t find it with just a quick google search.

What bothers me about this is how much I don’t know.  The cops haven’t even disclosed how the family died.  And maybe I’m being naive, or old fashioned, or whatever, but I have a hard time believing that a 12-year old girl, who was never in any trouble before she fell in with a child molester twice her age, just up and takes it into her head to kill her whole family.

Do I know who she is?  Yes, I do.  I have a hell of a lot of info on her, actually.  But until I know more about just what the hell happened, I’ll be keeping it to myself.

Good Lord, but I thought this was dead. It seems that the Shriners have gone back to the on-again off-again soap opera about bringing a hospital to London and turned the damned thing back on… yet again. Some of you reading this — hell, any of you that happen to be from the London area — likely remember how this happy crap turned out before. But nope; it’s back like an uninvited in-law at the cottage on the May two-four weekend.

Is anybody else getting sick and tired of this?

The resolution is almost identical to one the London Shriners presented two years ago at the group’s meeting in Baltimore. Montreal — its bid to keep the hospital backed by a strong show of support by the province — narrowly triumphed, the resolution failing to win needed two-thirds support by just a few votes.

I don’t know about anybody else, but I can remember the last time we had this carrot dangled in front of us. I also remember how much of my hard-earned tax dollars went down the shitter trying to woo the Shriners.

Here’s my advice — to the Shriners, to the mayor, and anybody else tied up in this turd typhoon: SHIT OR GET OFF THE POT! Either move it here or leave it there but fer chrissakes, quit bleating about it…

As you’ve likely heard, the federal Tories are once again firing one across the Grits’ bow with another series of ads designed to remind people of just who and what the Liebrals are. The latest, shown below, was originally put up at notaleader.ca, — the Tory site that gleefully sticks it to li’l ol’ Stephie Dee — but was uploaded to YouTube by Matt over at ASTTR (thanks, dude).

I don’t know about you, but I sure got a chuckle or two. So sit back, crack a cold one and enjoy the show…

Okay, heads up, everybody. If you live in TO and you’re wondering just who the hell the cops are looking for in the fatal shooting of Jordan Manners, here he is.

This is Collins Poku Duah, aged 17 and normally shielded from public knowledge of what he’s done by the YCJA. But, in a rare spasm of common sense, it seems a judge in TO has taken the unusual step of actually letting the cops tell the rest of us who they’re looking for…

Collins Poku Duah, 17, is wanted for first-degree murder. He is described as black, 5-foot-9, 200 pounds, with short black hair.

Police received judicial authorization Sunday to identify the second suspect due to extenuating circumstances.

If you see this punk, don’t go trying to be a smartass; cops say he should be considered armed & dangerous. Call the cops and let them do their jobs.

(Also feel free to right-click on the pic above and save it to your own PC before this killer gets caught and the courts decide to try and shove the genie back in the bottle… 🙄 )