W
Woody
Guest
Dear Friends
On another list, which Arkadiy belonged to and was highly regarded, the following information was posted. I obtained permission to repost this first. Here it is:
Warmest regards
Woody
On another list, which Arkadiy belonged to and was highly regarded, the following information was posted. I obtained permission to repost this first. Here it is:
Sad news indeed.here is the latest information I have. It comes from Rick
Sjodin, who if he ever has the time will rejoin the list, but he does say hi
to all you ****nuts out there.
Rick has been talking to contacts at the Wheeling PD. The Arlington Heights
PD is lending assistance on this investigation and Rick has some contacts.
Seems that *all* of those involved in the incident have been ID'd and
brought in for questioning. Furthermore, everybody involved has coped to
their part of the incident down to "I shot so and so and stabbed so and so",
the snag is that "but it was in self defense" was tagged on to the end of
every statement by every perp.
The real ***** about all of this is the standard cliche, average citizen
defends himself against a thug, thug dies, innocent citizen goes to jail is
a story that we hear all the time; true or urban myth notwithstanding. The
***** is, and hold onto your hats, no charges are being filed against these
guys!
That's right, I said despite confessions from all those involved, this is
getting treated as a legitimate SD, at least for now.
The reason is politics I'm sure. This has gone all the way up to the States
Attorney. Not the local DA, not the asst SA, but all the way up to Dick
Durban the SA for the state of Illinois. Seems that unless they are sure of
a conviction, they don't want to press charges. They feel that there is just
enough to possibly make a claim of SD appeal to a jury.
For the record, Arkaidy was both shot and stabbed. The other guy had 24 stab
wounds. (btw, it's not 100% that the other guy who died was foe, there is a
slight chance it was friend, but all evidence is leading towards foe, just
not definitively yet)
This begs the question(s), if you, or one of your mates, is getting stabbed
24 times, are you justified in killing that other guy? Even though you
started it? Who started it? Would the sight of a very large guy charging
your position, when you were in a pre-existing altercation, give you cause
to open fire because in your estimation he meant to do you grevious harm?
It seems that these questions and more are swirling around the case.
Sufficient enough to cause doubt in the mind of the SA that the case could
be won. I understand that to a SA a won/loss record is important to
re-election, but it still sucks blocky nuts.
Of course, and this is hard to say about a friend, but did Arkaidy go
charging into a **** storm and pretty well unknowingly set it up so the
perps would have some sort of bogus "out" with this SD claim?
Of course, that is *not* what you or I would be thinking about if we were
charging to our commrads aid as they were under attack. It's just an
unfortunate circumstance. As I understand it the **** was already flying
when Arkaidy got there. It was charge in or leave your friends to their
fate. He chose the former.
In hindsight, there were probably things he could have done different.
Hindsight is 20/20. It might be hard, trust me I'm having a difficult time
choking out every word here, but in the sense that we are all here to learn
from each other, perhaps it's an exercise we need to go through. With the
knowledge that it might at some point in the future help save another list
members life, I think Arkaidy would be the first to say that it should be
discussed.
If y'all don't mind, I might just watch from the side for a bit; at least
till I feel up to speaking. Could be right away, might not be for a bit. I
just don't know right now.
I *will* however update with any further information as I get it.
Warmest regards
Woody
