September 9, 2007
Family hides, as bullets keep flying
By Nigel Duara
Montgomery Advertiser
Montgomery, Alabama
Rosa Ford hasn't put up her new screen door.
It's the third one she's bought since the shootings began a month ago, a pretty piece of glass latticework that would have been shot to pieces when the men in a white car drove by, spraying her house with bullets.
Instead, the screen door sits in her living room, waiting -- like the residents -- for the gunfire to stop.
The men who shot at the house are looking for Antonio Robinson, her grandson. Someone is trying to kill him, shooting at him while he's at home or eating lunch or going out with his girlfriend.
He's no innocent bystander, though, and his grandmother knows it.
Four times, the men in the white car shot into her house. Bullets broke tile in her bathroom, shattered the glass screen in her entryway, broke plates in her kitchen. One bullet grazed her head.
Robinson knows who's trying to kill him. So does his grandmother.
It's bullying, Ford said, an extension of the days long ago when her grandson would get into little scraps on the street or in the school parking lot.
" 'Tonio never started fights. You always had to hit him first," Ford said. "I guess he's tired of getting his ass whupped. Probably tired of getting shot at, too."
Robinson is embarrassed that his grandmother explains the shootings as grown-up kids playing with guns, but said the people who fought with him after school are the same people who now sit in parked cars down the street from his house, waiting for him.
Robinson turned 18 last week. He said he can buy a gun. He said he can shoot back.
"I don't know what I'm going to do," Robinson said. "The police told me I have to protect myself."
A Montgomery police spokesman said he knows about Robinson's case. He said Robinson's only option is to hide.
"The only recommendation they (detectives) can give at this point is they (Robinson's family) try to find a location where the suspect who's trying to locate them can't find them," said Capt. Huey Thornton.
The police have assigned two detectives from the Special Operations Division to the case, but Thornton admits arresting the suspects would have little effect.
"That'll stop them while they're in jail," Thornton said. "They get a bond and they'll be right out."
Details of Robinson's juvenile criminal history are not public record, but Ford said her grandson was a lookout last summer while a friend broke into a car in the parking lot of Baptist Medical Center.
The hospital caught the episode on camera, Ford said. Robinson was arrested and sent to a juvenile detention center.
He's been shot at seven times. Usually, it's in front of his house, but there was a shooting outside of a club and, once, he was almost killed as he crossed a parking lot. He said he's not afraid.
Thornton said there's more to the story than Robinson is telling.
"There has to be some reason why they're so adamant and committed to shooting this subject," Thornton said. "People shooting into houses and shooting at people multiple times is not consistent with bullying."
Ford, whom Robinson calls Momma, said she has been living a nightmare since the shootings began in late December.
She watches for white cars now, especially the ones that drive by slowly.
"You can't hide from death," Ford said. "If it's time for you to go, you're gonna go."
Peering through her window, she kneaded the string that raises the blinds, working it between her fingers. She wants to take her grandson somewhere safe, away from the bullets that ravage her home with such seeming regularity.
Family hides, as bullets keep flying
By Nigel Duara
Montgomery Advertiser
Montgomery, Alabama
Rosa Ford hasn't put up her new screen door.
It's the third one she's bought since the shootings began a month ago, a pretty piece of glass latticework that would have been shot to pieces when the men in a white car drove by, spraying her house with bullets.
Instead, the screen door sits in her living room, waiting -- like the residents -- for the gunfire to stop.
The men who shot at the house are looking for Antonio Robinson, her grandson. Someone is trying to kill him, shooting at him while he's at home or eating lunch or going out with his girlfriend.
He's no innocent bystander, though, and his grandmother knows it.
Four times, the men in the white car shot into her house. Bullets broke tile in her bathroom, shattered the glass screen in her entryway, broke plates in her kitchen. One bullet grazed her head.
Robinson knows who's trying to kill him. So does his grandmother.
It's bullying, Ford said, an extension of the days long ago when her grandson would get into little scraps on the street or in the school parking lot.
" 'Tonio never started fights. You always had to hit him first," Ford said. "I guess he's tired of getting his ass whupped. Probably tired of getting shot at, too."
Robinson is embarrassed that his grandmother explains the shootings as grown-up kids playing with guns, but said the people who fought with him after school are the same people who now sit in parked cars down the street from his house, waiting for him.
Robinson turned 18 last week. He said he can buy a gun. He said he can shoot back.
"I don't know what I'm going to do," Robinson said. "The police told me I have to protect myself."
A Montgomery police spokesman said he knows about Robinson's case. He said Robinson's only option is to hide.
"The only recommendation they (detectives) can give at this point is they (Robinson's family) try to find a location where the suspect who's trying to locate them can't find them," said Capt. Huey Thornton.
The police have assigned two detectives from the Special Operations Division to the case, but Thornton admits arresting the suspects would have little effect.
"That'll stop them while they're in jail," Thornton said. "They get a bond and they'll be right out."
Details of Robinson's juvenile criminal history are not public record, but Ford said her grandson was a lookout last summer while a friend broke into a car in the parking lot of Baptist Medical Center.
The hospital caught the episode on camera, Ford said. Robinson was arrested and sent to a juvenile detention center.
He's been shot at seven times. Usually, it's in front of his house, but there was a shooting outside of a club and, once, he was almost killed as he crossed a parking lot. He said he's not afraid.
Thornton said there's more to the story than Robinson is telling.
"There has to be some reason why they're so adamant and committed to shooting this subject," Thornton said. "People shooting into houses and shooting at people multiple times is not consistent with bullying."
Ford, whom Robinson calls Momma, said she has been living a nightmare since the shootings began in late December.
She watches for white cars now, especially the ones that drive by slowly.
"You can't hide from death," Ford said. "If it's time for you to go, you're gonna go."
Peering through her window, she kneaded the string that raises the blinds, working it between her fingers. She wants to take her grandson somewhere safe, away from the bullets that ravage her home with such seeming regularity.
:shock: :roll: Jeez and I thought I had a bad day...
