GUILTY WI - Darius Simmons, 13, shot to death, Milwaukee, 31 May 2012

Hopeful One · Jul 16, 2013

Jurors were selected Monday in the case of a 76-year-old white man charged with gunning down a 13-year-old black boy last year on a Milwaukee sidewalk over a theft allegation.

Spooner suspected Simmons of breaking into his Milwaukee home and stealing guns, prosecutors said. Spooner confronted the teen on the sidewalk two days after the weapons came up missing and demanded that he return them. When Simmons denied stealing anything, Spooner shot him in the chest from five feet away as the teen's mother watched, according to the criminal complaint.

Spooner then fired a second shot as Simmons tried to run away, the complaint said. Police recovered a weapon and two spent bullet casings.

An autopsy found that Simmons, who was unarmed, suffered a gunshot wound to his torso. The bullet exited his back.

http://host.madison.com/news/state-...cle_1082fbd0-7a00-5be3-ba8c-ae983da3f03b.html

STEADFAST · Jul 16, 2013

He's going to plead innocent on the grounds of mental impairment. This is a fairly prominent case in Milwaukee, partly because of LE's actions after the shooting.

Police had forced the teen's grieving mother, Patricia Larry, to sit in a squad car for more than an hour rather than let her hold her dying son or join him at the hospital. Officers also searched the mother's home for the allegedly stolen firearms, which were not found, and they arrested another one of her sons on a year-old truancy violation. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/15/john-henry-spooner-trial_n_3600984.html

Details and lots of pics:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...3-year-old-black-neighbor-Darius-Simmons.html

Hopeful One · Jul 16, 2013

I feel so bad for the mom. Not only did she lose her son but she SAW him killed. Just horrifying.

EGirl · Jul 16, 2013

He needs to spend the rest of his natural life in Prison! And, the mother needs to SUE!! Sue him and the Police Dept.

IMO

burbqueen · Jul 16, 2013

im convinced nothing will be done and the guy will be acquitted.

Salem · Jul 16, 2013

Let's stay on topic here, guys. I've removed several posts comparing this to the Martin case. The facts are completely different. So let's not cross over, okay?

Salem

oh_gal · Jul 16, 2013

EGirl said:
He needs to spend the rest of his natural life in Prison! And, the mother needs to SUE!! Sue him and the Police Dept.

IMO

Suing everyone isn't going to bring her son back.

Bad things happen in life. It's horrible that anyone has to go through that, but, unfortunately, bad things happen.

We have become such a sue-happy society.

EmmaliLucia · Jul 17, 2013

oh_gal said:
Suing everyone isn't going to bring her son back.

Bad things happen in life. It's horrible that anyone has to go through that, but, unfortunately, bad things happen.

We have become such a sue-happy society.

While I agree with you, whoever thought it was a good idea to hold the mother for questioning for close to two hours while her son was dying right in front of her needs to see some sort of repercussion, whether it be he loses his or her job, or is sent to some SERIOUS sensitivity training, something needs to go down to make sure that never happens again.

What happened to that woman is on par with some emotional torture practices and I'd be amazed if she doesn't get lasting psychological damage from that, if you look through some other threads you'll see that people can get PTSD from a lot less.

Kimberlyd125 · Jul 17, 2013

This is horrible.
Video at link. But it's very disturbing.
Poor kid didn't have a chance.

http://m.jsonline.com/more/news/cri...ting-darius-simmons-b9956015z1-215749441.html

Video submitted at trial shows John Spooner shooting Darius Simmons

Hopeful One · Jul 17, 2013

Kimberlyd125 said:
This is horrible.
Video at link. But it's very disturbing.
Poor kid didn't have a chance.

http://m.jsonline.com/more/news/cri...ting-darius-simmons-b9956015z1-215749441.html

Video submitted at trial shows John Spooner shooting Darius Simmons

Oh. My. Gosh. That is so disturbing.

That poor kid! He must have been terrified!!

Linda7NJ · Jul 17, 2013

I don't even understand why there is a trial. His defense is he didn't intend to kill him? What???

Hopeful One · Jul 17, 2013

Linda7NJ said:
I don't even understand why there is a trial. His defense is he didn't intend to kill him? What???

He's claiming mental illness. :sigh:

Hopeful One · Jul 17, 2013

A Milwaukee mother couldn't contain her tears yesterday as she described the horrifying moment her white neighbor allegedly shot dead her son, a black 13-year-old, in front of her eyes after he accused the boy of stealing guns from his house.

According to her testimony, Larry ran after her son and found him on the ground with only a light pulse in his neck.

'Then I pulled his shirt up and I (saw) he had a bullet hole in his chest,' she testified tearfully. 'He took one more breath and that's it.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2366507/John-Spooner-trial-Darius-Simmonss-mother-describes-watching-neighbour-shoot-dead-black-son.html

EGirl · Jul 17, 2013

oh_gal said:
Suing everyone isn't going to bring her son back.

Bad things happen in life. It's horrible that anyone has to go through that, but, unfortunately, bad things happen.

We have become such a sue-happy society.

I am anti sue in 99% of situations. This was cold blooded murder and the police dept treated her and her dead son like the criminals here.

This is EXACTLY the case that screams for civil and criminal action.

JMO

Linda7NJ · Jul 17, 2013

EGirl said:
I am anti sue in 99% of situations. This was cold blooded murder and the police dept treated her and her dead son like the criminals here.

This is EXACTLY the case that screams for civil and criminal action.

JMO

Completely and totally agree

EmmaliLucia · Jul 17, 2013

I don't like how their mentioning race in all the articles.

I mean I get it, their of difference races, but that should not matter at all. How does race play into this, any ways? If they were of different races this would still be the same crime.

Oh well.

LietKynes · Jul 17, 2013

EmmaliLucia said:
I don't like how their mentioning race in all the articles.

I mean I get it, their of difference races, but that should not matter at all. How does race play into this, any ways? If they were of different races this would still be the same crime.

Oh well.

RSBM

Sometimes I think the media itself wants some kind of race war. Silly, I know. but I'm just saying.
The part of the surveillance video that was on the news, shows the boy backing up and clearly frightened.
I hope Spooner gets put away for the rest of his life !!!

kimlynn · Jul 17, 2013

EmmaliLucia said:
I don't like how their mentioning race in all the articles.

I mean I get it, their of difference races, but that should not matter at all. How does race play into this, any ways? If they were of different races this would still be the same crime.

Oh well.

I think race was just used as a description of the parties by the media.Same as age was used as a way to describe.
I agree that it would still be the same crime no matter age or race.
Some comments by people following this story seem to have the concern that it may be race related as in would he be so quick to suspect or shoot if the youth were of the same race as he.
Without any background on the shooter that is a broad leap.IMO

burbqueen · Jul 17, 2013

lietkynes?!?! Dune Reference perhaps?? sorry OT!

The media is there to make money and report the news. IN that order. I dont know much about this case at all, so I dunno if the neighbor had a habit of harrassing african americans or whatever. Also what was said above. It's really not an amazing leap to be honest. If the shooter is older then I'm sorry to say, but IMO usually the older generation raised in a different times see things a bit differently than someone in their 20's when it comes to race.

kimlynn · Jul 17, 2013

burbqueen said:
lietkynes?!?! Dune Reference perhaps?? sorry OT!

The media is there to make money and report the news. IN that order. I dont know much about this case at all, so I dunno if the neighbor had a habit of harrassing african americans or whatever. Also what was said above. It's really not an amazing leap to be honest. If the shooter is older then I'm sorry to say, but IMO usually the older generation raised in a different times see things a bit differently than someone in their 20's when it comes to race.

Good point regarding generational thinking.And I can't blame anyone for thinking in terms of it being open season (my words) on youth of certain races.
Still don't think race will come into play in this case as he is using a defense of mental illness.And if it does it would be hard to prove.IMO

GUILTY WI - Darius Simmons, 13, shot to death, Milwaukee, 31 May 2012

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