CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, April 24, 1995
3A
March recalls death of Native American man
Ilea Perrv / KANRAN
Greg Sevier's family walk with more than 130 people who participated in a march in honor of Greg Sevier.
Gregg Sevier shot by police four years ago
By Eduardo A. Molina Kansan staff writer
In a march for healing and justice, more than 130 people walked down Massachusetts Street on Friday afternoon to commemorate Gregg Sevier's death.
Sevier, a Native American, was killed four years ago by Lawrence police officers.
"We don't want this death forgotten," said Julie Sevier, Gregg Sevier's sister. "Nobody must forget Gregg's and other Indians' deaths in Lawrence, who were killed without a cause."
Willie Sevier, Gregg Sevier's father, said the march was an effort by different groups to commemorate his son's death.
"This is the third annual march to let the public know what happened to our son," he said.
After four years, the incident hasn't been
The suit came as a result of an inquest which found that police officers Ted Bordman and James Phillips acted properly when shooting Gregg Sevier six times on April 21,1991.
resolved, and a suit that the Seviers filed against the city in 1982 is still in court. said Willie Seyler.
The officers didn't try to talk with him, Orene Sevier, Greg Sevier's mother, said, but they pointed their guns at him. He didn't drop the knife, and the officers killed him.
According to Gregg Sevier's mother's testimony in the 1991 inquest, the two police officers didn't ask any questions before shooting her son. The Seviers had called the police with the hope that officers could disarm their son, who was in his room with a butcher knife, drunk and facing a broken relationship.
The officers claimed that Gregg Sevier threatened their lives, but his mother said the only words he said before dying were, "I love you mom."
Cynthia Butler, who researched the incident in 1991, agreed that there were many discrepancies in the investigation of Gregg Sevier's death.
"One of the problems in the investigation is that the diagram which was given to the jury has been misdrawn," Butler said. "Kris Sperry, a coroner from Atlanta, did the autopsy and in his reports the path of the bullets is completely different compared to what Lawrence coroner Carol Modrull did. She is an incompetent or a criminal."
Butler, who traveled from Oklahoma to participate in the march, said that another problem was that some evidence had been concealed.
"There is the possibility of a seventh bullet," she said. "But the police have covered up some facts."
The KU students who attended the march supported the Sevier family.
we are protecting police violence against Native Americans," said John Rainwater, first-year law student. "Native Americans died in this city without any police investigation."
Mark Kramer, Lawrence resident, drove his decorated bike in the march with signs which read "Honk for cultural justice."
"I have always supported the Sevier family since I met them in 1991," he said.
Internet for Oklahoma
Student creates an information resource
By Brenden CR Sager Kansan staff writer
A KU student got up late on Wednesday, turned on CNN and then turned on his computer and tried to help the Oklahoma City bombing victims.
"It was kind of a weird way of using the 'net," said Peter Thomas, Lawrence senior.
Thomas said he established a page on the World Wide Web to provide the latest information about the bombing. He said he wanted to provide a way for victims and others to communicate outside of the jammed telephone lines and media coverage.
"The Internet was a way to communicate beyond the traditional means," he said.
Thomas, a student in the School of Social Welfare, said that although he did not have any connections to the bombing, he
became interested because of his interest in disaster relief.
"People all over the world provided prayers and information," he said.
Thomas said that when he first logged on to the Internet, there were about 80 people already discussing the bombing. He decided to make a page of his own and give information on how others could get pictures from CNN and written texts from Voice of America.
He said the mainstream media wasn't providing enough information and didn't allow people outside of Oklahoma City to get a local perspective. "I wanted to get people on who knew things that I didn't," he said.
Thomas said that anyone with a KU account, a little bit of time and knowledge of how the Internet worked could have done the same thing.
"It wasn't that difficult." he said.
If you value diligence, we call Laura Green, computer consultant with Academic Computer Services, explained how others with KU accounts might do the same.
"If you have a connection with KU and the World Wide Web, you could access [Thomas'] home page,"she said.
Green said Thomas established a hypertext markup language document that included special codes for access to other information services, such as CNN and Voice of America.
Green said Thomas put the World Wide Web page in his falcon account — obtained through KU's computer services — which allowed access to anyone with a World Wide Web browser program.
Green said that students could get more information about how to operate Internet systems through the KU Campus Internet Association.
Thomas's account can be reached at http://falcon.cc.ukans.edu/
~pthomas.oklahma.html
HELP: Residents feel for victims
Continued from Page 1A
"The American people have given us so much," he said.
plies or money that they have now. He said that the tremendous response from people across the nation really made a difference in how the Red Cross was able to respond.
Johnson said that he spent nearly every waking minute working to help the victims and manage the volunteers. But he hasn't even seen the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
"I've been too busv." he said.
Some of the money Johnson is spending might have come from Lawrence Dealer Services, 417 Maple, a local towing company. They organized their own fund raiser to get donations for the Red Cross.
Roxane Hutchinson, dispatcher for the company, said the company parked a tow truck in the parking lot of Sac's, 2525 Iowa St. It was decorated with posters explaining the purpose of the usually unwelcome vehicle.
The fund raiser mobilized other businesses to help the volunteers.
"Joe's Bakery gave us doughnuts," she said. Hutchinson said that Dunkin Donuts also contributed to the doughnut pool, and Food 4 Less gave
Here's how to help
Area services that are taking donations for victims of the Oklahoma City bombing:
KU 911 emergency services — 864-5572
American Red Cross — 843-3550
Salvation Army — 749-4208
Other businesses also have organized fund raisers.
Mr. Goodencnts Subs & Pastas, 410 Kasold, will donate the money they make between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. today, and the KU and Douglas County 911 services are collecting stuffed animals. They can be reached at 864-5572.
them a $25 gift certificate.
"We've raised about $800 so far," Hutchinson said. She said that Lawrence Dealer Services would continue to take donations at their office for the rest of this week. They can be reached at 841-6153.
Hutchinson said that purple ribbons from Hallmark and Northwest Fabric were given out in memory of the victims. The Red Cross had a donation can and the Salvation Army also had a representative there.
Groups want trafficway audit
By Paul Todd
Kansan staff writer
A coalition of Lawrence organizations opposed to the construction of the South Lawrence Trafficway has asked the Douglas County Commission to conduct an audit of the money the county has spent on the trafficway. The announcement was made Saturday afternoon at the Douglas County Courthouse during the Lawrence Earth Day celebration.
The organizations sponsoring the announcement included the Coalition to Preserve the Wetlands, the Douglas County Preservation Alliance, KU Environs and Baker University Earth We Are.
"We think taxpayers have a right to know they are building a highway that's taking them for a ride they never voted for," said Lena Johnson, treasurer for the Coalition to Preserve the Wetlands.
The construction project authorization from the Department of Transportation — the state agency
which oversees the trafficway permits and construction — said that the county agreed to pay about $4.7 million of the $59.3 million bill for the trafficway. The rest of the money would come from the state and the federal government. The document also said that any costs exceeding $59.3 million must be paid by the county.
But the county already has spent $4.4 million on the trafficway, and construction has just begun. Johnson said the trafficway would cost the people living in Douglas County much more than expected because the county has already spent most of the money it budgeted for the trafficway.
Costs for the trafficway probably will rise even more, said Bev Worster, president of the Douglas County Preservation Alliance. County officials already have said they paid $12 million to private landowners for the trafficway's right-of-way, $8 million more than they had originally planned. County officials also had predicted that the total
cost for the trafficway would rise another $25 million through random expenses. Worster said.
But Worster said the increased costs were not the only issue.
Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to the Kansas Department of Agriculture expressing concern that the trafficway would cause increased flooding in the Wakarusa River Floodplain.
"This will most likely result in property damage and increases in flood insurance rates for businesses and homeowners in this area," the letter said. Johnson said the organizations opposed to the building of the trafficway felt the county had not followed existing environmental laws, and the groups were prepared to go to court.
"No one in this coalition is particularly interested in a lawsuit over the South Lawrence Trafficway," she said. "It's very sad that litigation may become our only option."
County commissioners could not be reached yesterday.
Corbin memorial honors student
Kansan staff writer
By Teresa Veazey
On a Sunday morning one year ago, Scott McWhorter, a Dallas freshman, fell from a fourth-floor window at Corbin Hall. McWhorter had been sleepwalking when he fell through the window screen onto the driveway below. He died two hours later at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
Although a year has passed since McWhorter's death, his friends and family said they still remembered fondly the warm and caring young man who had no enemies but always had a smile. McWhorter's family and members of Phi Gamma Delta, his fraternity, planted a memorial shrub last year beside the driveway behind Corbin Hall. Around the shrub lie painted bricks with pictures and messages for McWhorter.
"Everybody wanted to have something to recognize him and remember him by," said Derek Ahrens, Kansas City, "Kan, sophomore and a pledge brother of McWhorter's." "He was a remarkable individual."
Ahrens said he painted a brick with lyrics from the song "Nothing
Ahrens said he keeps the brick in his room.
Lasts Forever," by the Samples, a music group they both liked. The song says, "Nothing lasts forever, not the mountains or the sea. But the times we share together, they will always be with me."
"I think everybody has accepted the fact that Scott's gone, but it's hard to forget somebody like that," he said. "I was lucky enough to be able to have him come into my life."
Troy Horning, Wichita sophomore, has signed his name to one of the bricks surrounding the shrub. Horning said it was difficult for him to visit the site where his friend fell.
Jarrett Lane / KANSAN
"When you go over there, it's an emotional experience," he said.
McWhorter's sister, Chapain McWhorter, will be a freshman at KU in the fall. She said she visited her brother's memorial site every time she came to Lawrence. But it wasn't always easy.
"At first, it was very difficult because I could picture what had happened in my mind," she said. "Now, it's very peaceful."
Chaplain McWhorter said that her family had painted a brick to place
Colorfully painted bricks with messages from family and friends circle a memorial bush planted in honor of Scott McWhorter.
at the memorial but that she was making her own brick to place at the site the next time she visited Lawrence.
"He was my hero," she said. "He was the one I looked up to."
When Lea Chediak, Lawrence sophomore and McWhorter's girlfriend, was painting her brick to place at the memorial site, she said she thought about Scott and how important he was to her.
"I was thinking what he meant to me and what he gave me to live for," she said. "He was like sunshine to me."
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