Returning Sailor Killed in Gardena (LATimes)

[smallprint]

A sailor who had just returned from active duty in the war in Iraq was shot dead early today outside a nightclub along with a friend by two suspects who fired up to 30 rounds.

Brian Keith Butler, 25, was a hero on his block in a modest section of Gardena, a onetime Gardena High School basketball star who, according to family and friends, joined the Navy so that he could see the world.

Butler returned from a two-year tour of duty on a destroyer in the Persian Gulf this month and was scheduled to ship off again in June.

"We were so elated when he came home and was on safe ground. Little did we know he would be a victim of the streets of Los Angeles," said his aunt, Desdra Butler. "He'd gone around the world and come back home safely. But he could not go 10 minutes from Los Angeles."

Butler and friend Melvin Deonte Knolls, 25, were shot to death by a gunman who walked up to them as they were getting into their car after leaving a club near the intersection of 9th and Florence avenues in South Los Angeles, said Det. Rudy Lemos.

more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-052504sailor_lat,1,7204363.story?coll=la-home-headlines


Unbelievable... our nation's inner cities are truly war zones.

[aquart]

1. Well, young people can't get jobs.

And their parents have lost their jobs.

Makes for a little frustration.

[cjm2222]

2. Still, it is no excuse

I feel bad for the poor guy and his friend. If I were his family, I wouldn't give a damn whether or not the person who killed my son had a job or not. I grew up poor and I didn't kill anyone. I stole, but I never killed.

[othermeans]

3. I agree with you but...

if we took the money we are flushing down the toilet in Iraq and the massive kickbacks to the rich and the multi-nationals couldn't we improve the inner cities and rural poor?

[smallprint]

4. They can get a 'job' in the military

As long as they are willing to kill and/or be killed far away from home.

If they are peacefully inclined, the options are fewer.