This is Alexander (AJ) Boik. He was my children's friend at Gateway High School. He was hysterical. He always had something funny to say. One day my son had headphones on and we were waiting to get into a concert and he walked by my son and grabbed his ear buds out and said that music will rot your brain then they just started laughing. My children have many great memories with him. My daughter was friends with his fiancee LaSamoa. She is an amazing girl who has really risen in strength from this but the pain she had to get through....I just can't even. Holmes took his life. We will never know what he would have done with his life. See him posting photos of his children on facebook. None of his family will see him get married. A good kid who didn't get in trouble...gone.
This is Alejandra. Another one of my daughter's friends. She was shot but survived. That scar will remind her every day of that night and when they all lost their friend AJ. She has gone forward in her life, but she will never be able to forget that night.
And then there is Zach an amazing athlete who was within milimeters of being another name on the list of the dead. He survived but again, the scars will never let him forget.
These are only a few of his victims. Victims that never should have had to go through this. Their families who should have never gone through this. Their friends who should have never gone through this.
Let me tell you about that morning. My daughter and son would have been at that theater with their friends. I could just as easily be putting the faces of my children on this page. But I had moved. My daughter was at the midnight premier in Il where we were living with one of her friends. The kids had slept in. I was on layoff but got up early to see my boyfriend off to work. I turned on the TV and just sat there for a while. Not sure what I was seeing. Seeing people who had been in my home in tears on television. Seeing photos of blood and videos of people screaming I got up and ran to the kids rooms and woke them up told them to get on FB now and check on their friends. Photos of bloody movie stubs....bloody clothing....people saying who they couldn't find after. Watching people we knew on TV crying and talking about the event. We were so far away. No way to get to them. We were powerless.
This man killed innocent people who were just enjoying a movie. I don't for one second believe he was temporarily insane he had planned it for some time. And I don't think that any person who commits murder is sane. I don't believe that to be an excuse. Just because you are evil doesn't mean you can get off from your crime period. I had to be so strong for my kids all day then cry all night for days. At first we thought maybe AJ was at a hospital and just wasn't being named. Then on day 2. His name was released as being part of the original number. We watched on FB as our friends that were like family suffered and broke down.
This man did not deserve life in prison. He does not deserve to be accepting tax dollars to support him for the rest of his natural life. He just doesn't. I rarely think that someone deserves the death penalty but there are cases like this one where we the people should not be given the bill to support his breathing.
Please do not come at me with anti death penalty saber rattling. I just don't care. I agree most often the death penalty is unnecessary. But this is an exception. This was a mass murder and there is no chance of him ever regretting what he has done. The only regret, that he has ever said, was that he killed a small child. A little girl who had not even lived. I am thankful for what time my children had with AJ. I am thankful for the good memories they have of him. I am thankful I met him. But, I don't believe he should be away from us and his killer be allowed to breath the same air as us.
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