As someone who believes in standing up for the underdog and helping those who need help, it's particularly upsetting to hear about this brutal toddler death after an adult in the home did the right thing. While police won't identify the Good Samaritan, who broke up an assault by a man on a woman -- allowing the woman to escape from the attacker -- they do say his house became the target after he helped his neighbor. His house that is filled with family members and lots of children.
Showing no good deed goes unpunished, the man who was stopped from attacking the woman came back an hour later and fired on the home. His gunshots killed a 3-year-old little girl named Nylah and injured a pregnant woman and another toddler. How horrible is it that if this man had just let that woman continue to be violated, his family members would still be alive? How could he have known that setting a good example for his family would end so tragically?
While luckily my story did not have a similar ending, I was also in a situation where I felt I needed to step forward, but with my daughter in tow. As I strolled my toddler girl down the sidewalk, I witnessed a man screaming at a 2-year-old little girl, and eventually grabbing her toy stroller and flinging it across the street as he berated this crying toddler. I was angry enough to call him names, and he turned on me. Even as I was reminding him that she was just a little girl and that he, in fact, was an asshole, I realized I had just put myself and my toddler in danger as well. He was incredibly angry, and he yelled back at me to mind my own business and to get away from him, pronto. I did, but felt like I should have done more.
Being in a situation where you can protect someone else from harm is not something to walk away from, usually. But when you have children to protect, maybe you should. Violent and crazy people don't really care about your child, as shown in this tragic story. It would have been better, for little Nylah, if this man had plugged his ears and ignored what was going on in the neighborhood.
It's not a good choice. And not a good message to your kids if you see someone being abused and you turn the other way. I can't help think but if he'd called the police, and the attacker knew he did it, the same thing would have happened. A psycho is a psycho, no matter what.
Clearly, I don't know what you should do in this situation. I know I was lucky I was just yelled at by an abusive man, and my daughter escaped unscathed. This family in California was not so lucky.
What would you do in this situation?
Image via thisisrod/Flickr
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Comments 131
Before I had my son, I walked out in front of a man who had a loaded gun, and was trying to drag her off into his car. He had pistol whipped her, and torn her up pretty badly.
Now that I'm a mom, I call the cops. Sometimes I have requested anonymity.
I think we all act in the moment and not think about who the other person is and what they are cabable of. I was driving home one day and out of no where this guy was tailgating me, I sped up to allow him to get over but he didn't. I got to a red light with him still behind me and I see him in my mirror yelling and cussing at me, so I flipped him off (not the best choice of mine) and rolled up my window. Still at the light I see him back up (I figured he was going into the next lane) and he rammed his car into me. I was scared at this point because for one I don't even know what I did in the first place for this crazy to act this way and second I didn't know what else he would do. When the light turned green I made the left turn and tried to stay out of his way, but didn't get out in time for him to ram my car again. I was scared, crying and did I mention pregnant.... I made a fast turn on a street to get away and call the cops. My point is that when another person is angery at whatever they will go to great lengths to prove to the other person just how angry they are, even if it harms them.
I think the man would have shot at the house or the woman regardless of what someone else did. A lot of abusive relationships end in death. It's sad that this man will think he caused a childs death. He didn't though. He wasn't the one who shot at a house with children inside. So please don't say if the man had continued to beat the woman he wouldn't have shot at the house. I would have done the same thing. I grew up with abuse. I wouldn't want it to happen to someone else if I could help it.
Xavier-but the abusive man shot at a DIFFERENT house. so maybe he would have shot at his girlfriend's house, but maybe that baby would still be alive. Just wanted to point that out.
Either way, this is so sad.