A 16-year-old boy rang the wrong doorbell. A 20-year-old woman turned into the wrong driveway. Teenage cheerleaders stopped outside a supermarket, and one got into the wrong car.
Seemingly harmless occurrences culminated in horrific gun violence in all three cases. Ralph Yarl was shot in the head. Kaylin Gillis was shot dead. Payton Washington and a friend were injured.
The three shootings have each attracted national attention. The incidents may feel especially senseless because the victims are all young people looking ahead to the future.
Yarl is a gifted student and musician. Gillis aspired to become a marine biologist. Washington already has a tumbling scholarship to Baylor University after high school graduation.
Yarl was picking up his younger twin brothers from a friend’s home and rang the wrong doorbell. The homeowner shot him in the head, cracking his skull and leaving him with a traumatic brain injury, police have said. The homeowner fired a second time when the teenager was on the ground.
Prosecutors have filed two felony counts against the 84-year-old homeowner,: assault in the first degree and armed criminal action. He has pleaded not guilty. Yarl is recovering from his injuries.
Gillis was in a car with three friends when they pulled into the driveway of an upstate New York home they mistakenly believed belonged to someone they knew, police have said. The suspect allegedly fired twice at the car from his porch; one of the shots fatally struck Gillis, sitting in the passenger seat.
and The cheerleaders were on their way back to Austin just after midnight Tuesday when they stopped at a supermarket, where some had parked their cars. When one of the girls accidentally tried to get into the wrong car, the armed man inside got out and fired five times, according to the gym owner where they trained.
What the hell is going on anymore? These were simple everyday accidents, yet lives were needlessly taken due to trivial everyday occurrences.
