They say every face in a crowd has a story to tell, this is my story..

The news shows and newspapers all called it 'Road Rage'. To me that sounded like a disease, an affliction that can make you kill. A sorry excuse to take the claw end of a hammer and slam it repeatedly into the skull of a human being. In April of 1999 my little brother passed away. Doesn't passed away sound so gentle, even normal? David's death was neither. It was murder. He was found lying in a strangers driveway in a pool of blood. He had been punched, stomped and beaten over his entire body. I still have so many questions. I wrote this book at first for therapy and then for answers. I have found a few. I mainly realized l lost a brother tragically and senselessly. Like every other face in the crowd I have a story..and I want to share my story with you! PUBLICATION DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED LATE SUMMER/EARLY FALL :)

Monday, October 11, 2010

More from Bristol Stomp...


Such a beautiful Ball Park!
Great Game!
How about those Phillie's!!!
To celebrate my blog approaching 300 followers I am giving a prize for every 10 new followers;  The winners this week will be chosen from the comments on this post and from my last 2 posts.   I am looking for the most meaningful comments...Good Luck and Thank You!! 
I will announce the winner's on Friday!! 
 From Bristol Stomp:
I had plenty of time alone at night to think.  I thought about that night often.  I had always thought Dave had been coming west on Wilson Avenue.  Or was he was driving east?  Jerry Reeves car must have been following him down Route 13, Greene Lane and then onto Wilson Avenue.  I just don't know.  I believe Dave pulled over because Jerry was flashing his lights or beeping.  David most likely assumed it was someone he knew.  Perhaps he thought it was one of my kids or my sister or any one of his many friends.  As Jerry walked up to the car and Dave rolled the window down, I believe Jerry punched David as the others in his car surrounded David's car.  Joey and Anthony got out of the car.  There was a fight that did not last long.  Dave, Joey and Anthony were stunned.  As they tried to pull away they were surrounded.  I believe Dave was struck in the back of the head with something as soon as he got out of the car.  He stumbled to the driveway being hit with something the whole way.  When he was down I do believe Steve was hitting David with something, Mike Good was stomping on his head and Jerry was beating him with the level.  When Galione finished beating on Anthony he came over and knelt over Dave and pounded that hammer into Dave’s head.  This is what I think.  Will I ever know the entire truth?  I hope so.  Will the others be arrested ever?  I’m not going to give up, ever! There is no statute of limitation on murder.
            Something else I think is instead of blaming my family, the Galione’s, Reeves and the other murderer’s family and friends should have started a fund for Michael and Birna.   Birna lost her husband, her car and was unable to work in the United States until her green card situation was settled.   We did not even have a car seat for Michael because someone smashed it to pieces.  There was no reason to treat any of us the way we were treated. Where was your compassion, your Christianity?  I do not know how you live with yourselves or sleep at night.  Jimmy and Jerry went to jail because they murdered David.   That was their choice.  We did not put them there.   That choice hurt a lot of people and still does, like it happened yesterday.
            You should have the moral conviction to leave any time you see us at a party, in a store or at a bar.   That would just be the right thing to do.   How dare you make any comment to Birna or any of us!   I pray every day for the ability to forgive you for your behavior.    I pray that you will be struck by some flash of light that says, what where we thinking.  Why did we hurt that family more than they where already hurting so badly?
            What I mostly think is like so many other faces in a crowd I’m  just a sister that lost a brother tragically.   It is not a new story unfortunately violence does strike someone minute of everyday.
            I thought a lot about Anthony and Joey and Dominic.   Anthony and Joey were the last people on earth to hear David.   They were the last two to see him as he was when he was alive, a big strong gentle giant.   I wondered what they were thinking.    Did they torture themselves like I did going over and over that night in their minds?    Did David ever come to them in their dreams?
I also thought about my friends.   I was so busy with the babies and my blossoming social life I never saw or heard from any of them.   I really missed Tina.   I wondered if I had done something wrong.   Was she sick of my sadness and depression?   Maybe she had stuff going on in her life and she needed me but felt I couldn’t be there.    That made me sad.    Or does life take people in different directions.   Of course there were the friends that turned out to be not worth my time.   The ones that said get over it already and move on.   I was making some new friends at NOVA but I really did miss some of the old ones.
            I thought about the psychic that night at Michael’s.    He clearly saw something violent was going to happen.   He told Joan to crawl under the car to be safe.  Why didn’t Dave crawl under the car?   Why did the psychic see Joan and not Dave in the violence?
Statistics show Road Rage is becoming an increasing problem in our nation.  If you find yourself in a harassing situation by another driver, do not react!  Avoid making any eye contact,  this could be a trigger for confrontation.  Do not be temped to accelerate, break or swerve suddenly.  This may also be seen as confrontational and increases your chance of losing control of your vehicle.  If a driver continues to hassle you or you think you are being followed, drive to the nearest police station or busy place and get help.
I thought about people like Natalie Holloway’s family.  They have no idea what happened to their daughter.  They have no idea where she is.  We may not have all the pieces, but we do know David is dead. We know where his ashes are.  These poor parents had no clue.  I cried and prayed for them.  I saw their fight for justice was going to be agonizing.  I wanted to hug them.  I wanted to go to Aruba and help them find their baby.
            I tried to stop thinking about all of this stuff.  I needed to move on and put some kind of life together for myself.  I knew without a doubt I wanted to help victims.  That would always be a part of my life.  I devoted a lot of time to NOVA.  I hoped God had put me on the right path.


4 comments:

  1. Road rage is a simply a symptom of what we have become, sadly. We've lost the respect for others and seldom care for anyone beyond our families, or ourselves. Respect and boundaries are not aren't valued nor are another person's personal beliefs. All we seem to care about is what is important to us.

    It's become even more that, "me," society we live in these days.

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  2. OMG such a tragic story, I will pray for you and all. Reading this story I feel deeply and hope that some how you and the entire family will get the comfort, peace, and ability to accept a senseless tragedy and move on. Though losing someone that way will never really mean moving on more only acceptance. This is an example of how there are so many questions to what we know as faith. Blessings to you. I stumbled on this blog, I don't even know how.

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  3. "Why did the psychic see Joan and not Dave in the violence?"

    If I'm keeping this straight, Dave is Joan's uncle. So my thought is that she somehow was channeling Dave's energy, but the psychic sees it as coming from her. I think you can know things, but what you're seeing is not always clear. That you need all the pieces of the puzzle to know what the message is or who it goes to.

    I had the weirdest dream once, and I told it to my mother-in-law in the morning. And she was in it with the rest of my husband's family. She said, you just described the home I grew up in down to the umbrella stand. (I was quite detailed with the stand.) That was weird. When I first met my husband we were in seperate states and I would have these dreams about him. Then I'd call and tell him. Like one time, I dreamed we were walking in the mall and he couldn't talk so he was writing on a pad. When I told him, he said I just got done with a bout of laryngitis. So there's some sort of psychic connection there.

    Perhaps Dave and Joan had the same thing and the psychic mixed up who the message was for.

    I agree with you on not knowing what happened to a loved one. That would be the worst.

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  4. I once slammed on my breaks in response to someone tailgating me. He responded by literally trying to drive me off the road. I had the kids in the car; it was terrifying. I will never do that again!

    Again...so sorry that your family had to go through such pain...

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