Death of a Slain Officer Hits Home

This is an editorial that I sent into the newspaper and that was chosen to be printed this week. I wanted to share this article with everyone. I am very proud of it.

Death of Slain Officer Hits Home

The magnitude of violence that transpired over the Christmas holiday here in Aiken SC was nothing but horrific as the residence in my small town settled in for a merry Christmas season.

On December 20^th 2011 a simple traffic stop on Brandt Ct at the Paces Run apartment complex here in Aiken SC turned into a tragic murder for one of Aiken’s finest police officers.  Officer Scotty Richardson, a lifelong resident of Aiken, was murdered by accused killer 19yo Stephon Carter. 

Contrary to what the local papers has printed about this story through my own investigative efforts I uncovered more to this event than what was conveyed. 

At 8:58pm Officer Travis Griffin and Scotty Richardson responded to shots being fired from 750 Teague St.  Again through my own investigation I discovered the shots came from Columbia Ave a couple of hundred feet away from this address.  The reason this address was given to the police is because the neighbor of the residents at this address had previous conflicts and the police were called several times as a harassment tactic in the past using unfounded complaints according to the residence at 750 Teague St.  In other words a neighbor’s quarrel was the ignition to this young man’s situation with the police that night.

The residents at 750 Teague St personally knew Stephon Carter and also knew that it was Stephon Carter shooting a firearm on Columbia Ave.  He was shooting at a young man only known on the streets as Juice.  This young man is from New Ellenton SC which is about 30 minutes past the south side of my hometown of Aiken.  It has been said that Stephon Carter and this unknown man “Juice” had previous unarmed violent confrontations in a neighborhood area in New Ellenton SC.

The two officers did get a description of the car that sped away from the disturbance which was a black Cheverlot Impala.  This same Impala was stopped thirty minutes later at Brandt Ct where the Paces Run apartment complex is located.  Thanks a resident at this complex who saw the whole incident and wanted to remain anonymous Officer Scotty Richardson approached the car and only asked for Stephon Carter to step out of the vehicle. No police procedure was used to approach this so called “dangerous individual” nor was extreme caution exercised during the stop. Officer Scotty Richardson was accompanied by Officer Travis Griffin and later by Officer Tracy Seymour.

According to sources the accused, after being the only one asked to step out of the car, suddenly pulled a gun out which preceded to turn into a gun fight with hail of bullet in the crossfire. Officer Griffin was shot in the chest, Officer Seymour was not injured at all and of course Officer Richardson lost his life in the line of duty.

Stephon Carter at the time was out on bail for two prior gun charges he recently received which made this whole situation quite confusing for me. If taken in he would have just served a few years for this recent charge and maybe acquired a separate charge for shooting a firearm in public. What possessed Stephon Carter to resist rational thought and hastily pull out a gun that resulted in the loss of a person’s life and mostly likely at the cost his own?

Again though confidential individuals that personally know Stephon Cater it was said that he had traumatic experiences in jail, with harsh and aggressive engagements from the same law enforcement that has sworn to protect us.  On occasion guns were pulled on Stephon Carter and questions were asked later.  Also it has been said that the bullets that killed Officer Scotty Richardson did not match the gun seized from the accused during the time of his arrest and the murder weapon cannot be found.  Without any physical evidence Solicitor Strom Thurmond will have a perfect case for the death penalty with several eye witnesses to the case at hand.

Whether Stephon Carter is guilty or not will be for a jury to decide. What is my responsibility after receiving a mysterious phone call communicating to me the disapproval from several in the community asking me in their own words “Why would I make a human out of a monster?”

To answer that question “We all are of the same race and I have the ability to be thy neighbor when comes your time to need me.”

Hello To Everybody

Hello Everybody

This is my first first blog ever so I really don't know what I want to say or how to say it.  I see there are many techniques to writing a blog and how to convey your message correctly to reach your readers.  Since I never had any real formal training in writing I am going to approach this blog in the same manner as I do in life and in writing.  I am going to be truthful and real.  I believe all of you deserve that.  

So I just e-published my first book ever which makes my third publication.  My e-book "For the Love Of(verse three) which is an unedited edition is part of Amazon's Kindle Publishing.   I believe that you can down load the book for I-Pad, Android based products, other tablets and Kindle as well.  If I seem a little shaky about everything please forgive me.  There is a part of me that feel like a gay superhero that just realized his super powers. HEHEHE

I wanted to take the time to answer some of the questions posed to me from people that wanted to know more about the book itself and the methods behind my madness.  

Some of you wanted to know why I put out unedited edition of the book.  The reason I did that is because I write as I live life. I believe people should be given the opportunity to read the same way.  When we live life there is nobody that comes behind us with an eraser to make our mistakes and bad memories disappear.  In life you either pass or fail the test but the best thing about this circle is that we can learn together and try not to make the same mistakes again.  

With that being said let me answer a second question and kill two birds with one stone.  People wanted to know where I came up with the interesting stories that the main character goes through.  The adventures the main characters talks about are faithful fictional recreations of my life.  Believe it or not it is a collection of my intimate experiences, bones in my closet, my wisdom, my pain and my memories.  I laugh when one reviewer thought that I was writing stories for a gay television series because she could not believe one person went through so much drama.  I am so glad that now enough time has passed that everybody can take pleasure in my pain. HEHEA few wanted to know what motivated me to write as raw as I did and talk about subjects like enjoying the rock and roll drug lifestyle or talk about the promiscuous escapades that the character goes through.  Again the things I witnessed and experiences are not wiped away with a pencil.  I see life as being written with a pen.  You can't erase ink.  It is permanent. You can strike through a mistake when you write with a pen but it is still there to remind you not to make the same errors.  

I have never been ashamed of my life and I know I have learned something in this process called living.  I just did not want to be the only one and did not want anyone else to feel alone in the struggles they were going through.  I went through a lot of thing, met very interesting characters and I realized that even if I could not change them I could not let them change the person I am.  

So one last question and we will save the rest for the next blog.  Some people wanted to know who are the two pictures with me on the cover of my book and when do the first two segments of the series come out.  The white guy is my boyfriend of four years his name is Michael and the dog was our pet Fritz.  He died a year ago.  When this third segment came out I was determined to have the two most important people in my life on the cover with me.  Without those two there would not be a story to tell.

Last the first two segments For The Love Of and For The Love Of(verse two) holds contracts with Publish America and I will keep you up to date about that development up to the release date.  

So thank you to everyone that believed in me, thank you to Amazon for making this medium available, thank you Michael and Fritz, and most of all I thank life for allowing me to live to have something to share.