It hasn’t sunk in to me yet, but earlier today one of the nicest people that I know was brutally killed: article in the local newspaper
Frank Newbery was the best friend of my father (who is a little older than Frank, and who I am sure is stunned by this). As the person quoted in the article said:
Frank just ran a little sandwich shop, which can’t have been making that much money. This death is just senseless, in every possible way. And I still can’t believe it, even after the message from my wife was confirmed by this article.
While your thread is neither mundane nor pointless, the Pit is probably not the environment that you need to experience regarding this issue. I’ll move you to MPSIMS.
Well, I spent the day in meetings, which was probably the best thing to keep my mind off things. I did mean the pit, because I just wanted to pit the senseless waste of this killing. But I suppose I can say what I need to say here.
One thing that I do regret is that I can’t be with my father now. However, my wife is in Newcastle, along with some of his grandchildren and many of his friends, to help him get through this. But the whole thing is so damn stupid: everybody who had anything to do with Frank liked the man.
So very sorry, too, Giles. I do hope that justice is served by finding whoever did this, and that your family and community hold together through this sad event. If you need to vent and get mad about it, go ahead on; lots of good supporting folks here.
Newcastle’s still got something of a big country town feeling about it, and i’m sure all the locals are sad and angry at this.
Unfortunately, as a big country town, it also has a pretty decent number of unemployed, poorly educated, disaffected youth, and many of the problems you’d expect to arise from that, including robberies, violence, and drug use.
Before they retired, both my stepfather (a cop) and my mother (civilian admin person for the police force) worked at Newcastle police station. My mother worked in the physical evidence section, and when i went to visit her i was often amazed at how many violent cases they seemed to be dealing with (this is back in the late 80s).
I think you’re right on both counts. Frank had been running his shop for 56 years, i.e., from before when my family moved to Newcastle when I was a child, so it seemed that everyone in the town knew and liked him.
However, there is relatively high unemployment in Newcastle, and a worrying level of violent crime. I don’t think anyone knows what to do about these things.
I’ve read what I can of the news coverage. Apparently, Frank was found lying injured in his shop, so no one else saw the attack. However, it looks like a robbery, though not an armed one. The police are askng for any witnesses who saw Frank between 3 and 5 pm.
