NYT: Queens Woman Killed by Stray Bullet Through Her Window

[TahitiNut]

Queens Woman Killed by Stray Bullet Through Her Window
By AL BAKER and JANON FISHER
Published: December 30, 2005

It is not clear what prompted Selina Akther to move toward a window of her fifth-floor apartment in Queens, the police said. Her two children were sleeping and her husband was on a phone call to Bangladesh in another room, so they did not see the stray bullet that crashed through the closed window and hit her in her right eye, leaving her an unintended homicide victim.

It was shortly before midnight on Wednesday when a man in the street below pulled the trigger of a 9-millimeter handgun at least five times, the police said. It was a rare violent occurrence in a precinct that encompasses the residential Briarwood neighborhood where Ms. Akther, who was 28, had lived with her family for more than two years.

The Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said last night that Danny Carpio, 23, had been charged with manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon, both in the second degree, and was being held pending arraignment in Queens criminal court in Kew Gardens. Mr. Carpio, an Army private on home leave from Fort Hood, Tex., fired the gun when he ran into friends in the street after a night of revelry, said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.

"This individual puts himself at the scene," Mr. Kelly said. "We believe he fired a gun in the air to celebrate his homecoming with friends in front of the location." Mr. Kelly said Private Carpio lives two blocks from Ms. Akther's home, but that there was no indication that the two knew each other.

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[SOS]

1. This tragedy

is the result of alcohol abuse. Carpio told investigators he "drank some beer and vodka" during a night of "revelry". The next day Carpio was "extremely remorseful and cooperative".
If alcoholism treatment was offered in the early stages, many such nightmares could be prevented.

[TahitiNut]

3. Well, "criminal possession of a weapon" has little to do with alcohol.

It should be noted that existing laws were broken, so it's highly dubious that making more laws would help.

I'm also somewhat dubious that any program to identify and treat alcohol abuse would catch a 23-year-old Army private in its nets.

While I'm a 'whackjob' liberal, I'm also strongly in favor of individual responsibility. In a culture of blame and codependency, however, we're often unable to shoulder responsibility when we're overburdened with blame-shifting. I'll add to that the fact that individual responsibility is not nurtured in authoritarian cultures! (It's the "cat's away" syndrome.) As we find ourselves increasingly populated with people-wearing-uniforms, I'm absolutely certain that we're going to see an increase in both social oppression and irresponsibility.

[michreject]

2. If he "Borrowed" the gun from the military

He has more trouble coming to him that the state of NY can administer.