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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
CRIME
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9,2009
Florida man charged with murder
BY MATT SEDENSKY AND
MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. — Jason Rodriguez's marriage long ago went sour, his home taken in foreclosure, his job lost to incompetence, his finances sunk in bankruptcy. It was a "stress overload" for the man accused of a deadly shooting rampage at his former office, his lawyer said Saturday.
The 40-year-old man whose life seemed to just keep getting worse was charged Saturday with first-degree murder, accused of killing one and wounding five Friday at his former office. He said nothing in
his brief court appearance Saturday, but his attorney portrayed him as a mentally ill man who fell victim to countless problems.
"This guy is a compilation of the front page of the entire year
— unemployment, foreclosure, bankruptcy, divorce — all of the stresses," said the public defender, Bob Wesley. "He has been declining in mental health. There is no logic whatsoever, which points to a mental health case. It looks like a classic case of stress overload."
Police refused to say anything more Saturday about their investigation into the shooting. But as Rodriguez remained on suicide watch at the Orange County Jail, a portrait of his crumbling life
began to emerge.
He couldn't pay the child support he owed for his 8-year-old son. He was nearly $90,000 behind on bills, his bankruptcy file showed. A once-promising, but short-lived career at an engineering firm faded into a job at a fast-food chain.
Wesley described his client as "very, very mentally ill" but offered no specifics. His former mother-in-law, America Holloway, said he was a schizophrenic who was constantly paranoid, blaming others for all of his woes and who always thought everyone disliked him.
The suspect's own mother struggled Saturday for words to defend her son. She could only muster an apology.
fired in June 2007.
Identified as the single fatality in the shooting spree was Otis Beckford, 26, the father of a 7-month-old daughter who was standing near the receptionist's desk when the gunman entered the office.
Beckford's mother told The Palm Beach Post that she had last talked to him Thursday night, firming up the family's Thanksgiving plans.
"Now, he won't be there," Ielida Cole told the newspaper. "Such a shame! I had two children. Otis and my daughter. I have one left. I never thought something like this would happen to him."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
An office worker is moved from a building where a multiple shooting took place in downtown Orlando on Friday. A gunman opened fire in the offices of an engineering firm where he was let go more than two years ago, authorities said, killing one person and injuring five others.
Five others were wounded: Gregory Hornbeck, 39; Ferrell Hickson, 40; Guy Lugenbeel, 62; Edward Severino, 34; and Keyonda Harrison, 27. All were in stable or good condition at Orlando hospitals and were expected to survive. Several employees reached Saturday said the firm has told them not to publicly discuss the shooting.
"Sorry for the families involved" Ana Rodriguez said. "I'm really very sorry, it is very hurtful."
The Legion Place building, where the shooting occurred, remained cordoned off Saturday with police tape, though some workers returned
Police said Rodriguez himself also offered words of remorse as he was handcuffed Friday, explaining he was just going through a tough time. But it offered little solace to victims, all of whom worked at Reynolds, Smith and Hills, where the suspect was an entry-level engineer for 11 months before being
to get purses and other belongings left behind in a scrawble to escape. Courtney Moore, a paralegal on the building's 17th floor, returned for her car, and remembered frequently
sharing an elevator with Beckford or seeing him in the cafeteria.
"He was always so polite and friendly," she said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bees collect nectar from the flowers in the Rose Garden of the White House Sunday in Washington.
Busy bees
CRIME
Violence against Hispanics becomes a focus for authorities after attacks
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BY FRANK ELTMAN
Nicholas Hausch pleaded guilty in the stabbing death of Ecudorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero. Five others were also charged.
Associated Press
PATCHOGUE, N.Y. - The high school buddies who trolled the streets looking for Hispanics to attack called it "beater hopping."
"Jose, Kevin and I started popping and Jose punched him so hard he knocked him out," Anthony Hartford told police, according to prosecutors.
Hartford said he didn't do it often. "Maybe only once a week."
But it wasn't until the seven teens accused in the killing told police of the attacks — and Hispanic residents who had been long silent about hate crimes came forward to confirm the stories — that officials began to realize what they were dealing with.
a street corner.
There had been other high-profile attacks on a growing Hispanic population on eastern Long Island before Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero was stabbed to death a year ago Sunday on
The year since the Lucero slaying has put a national spotlight on race relations and has seen the U.S. Justice Department launch a probe of hate crimes and police response to them. A national civil rights group released a study that found "a pervasive climate of fear in the Latino community" in Suffolk County.
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On Saturday, dozens of people, including Lucero's mother, brother and sister, held a candlelight vigil where he died, singing, holding hands, and praying there wouldn't be another such killing.
Many victims said they had always been reluctant to contact police, fearing they would be asked about their immigration status. Just weeks after presiding at a funeral for Lucero, a preacher invited Hispanic crime victims to share their experiences. Dozens came forward.
enough evidence to file charges in eight other attacks against the teens accused in the Lucero killing.
Many were unable to identify attackers, but prosecutors cleaned
"It was a bunch of people relieved that someone was listening," the Rev. Dwight Lee Wolter said. "They just wanted some sort of witness that their story was worth telling."
Not all were crime victims. One man came to the church with his telephone answering machine wrapped in plastic, Wolter said. He had received threatening phone calls from his landlord, peppered with anti-Hispanic slurs, and wanted advice on making it stop.
Foster Maer, an attorney for Manhattan-based Latinojustice, which called for the Justice Department investigation, said the Lucero killing "raised everybody's awareness of how bad it is."
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said officers don't ask victims whether they're illegal immigrants and said the probe would exonerate the department.
Dormer assigned a Hispanic officer to command a local precinct after the killing.
Lucero, 37, came to the United States when he was 21 and worked at a dry cleaner. He was walking with a friend shortly before midnight near the Patchogue train station when they were confronted by a mob of teens. His friend ran away, but Lucero was surrounded, prosecutors say.
He tried to fight back, flailing at the assailants with his belt. At some point, 18-year-old Jeffrey Conroy plunged a knife into Luceros chest before running away, prosecutors said.
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