Boy's stabbing draws attention about race

[Darth Sidious]

Local and federal authorities have not labeled the
fatal stabbing of a white boy by a black man a
hate
crime, but the Justice Department is monitoring
the
investigation by Alexandria, Va., police.
Recently revealed evidence indicates the
attacker,
who was black, targeted 8-year-old Kevin
Shifflett
because he was white.
Witnesses have told police the killer made
comments about hating white people during the
attack,
law enforcement sources say.
"We are certainly aware of the situation,
and we
are aware of the recent media reports that this
could
be racially motivated," said Kara Peterman, a
spokeswoman with the Justice Department's Civil
Rights Division. "At this time, we are
monitoring the
situation."
Ms. Peterman refused to elaborate on what
the
department's involvement has been, or could be,
in the
high profile case. A Justice Department source
said
that authorities are waiting for more
information about
the case before any action is taken.
The source also said authorities would
look at
violations of civil rights laws if they pursued
the case.
Amy Bertsch, a spokeswoman for the
Alexandria
Police Department, would not discuss whether
police
are considering the homicide as a hate crime or
any
other details of the case.
Despite a report in The Washington Times
yesterday that investigators withheld racially
sensitive
information from their fellow officers — which
may
have hindered the 13-week-old investigation,
law
enforcement officials said — Alexandria
officials
praised the efforts of the city's police.
"What they did was proper," said council
member
Joyce Woodson, a Democrat. "We already live in
a
racially charged world. I don't think knowing
that
would have had any impact on the way they
investigated the case. It could have colored
their
approach [to the case] in ways that would have
been
inappropriate."
Mayor Kerry Donley said police and city
officials
have been focused on finding Kevin's killer and
bringing that person to justice. "Efforts to
sensationalize this investigation will only
hurt this
investigation," said Mr. Donley, a Democrat.
Council member William Euille, a Democrat,
said
based on what he heard, he thinks the police
have
done a "thorough" job in investigating the
case.
"I don't know if that information [about
keeping
secret the racially sensitive details] is
factual," said
Mr. Euille. "It would be unfortunate if it were
a fact,
but I'm presuming that it's not. My faith and
confidence rests with our police department."
But some residents in the Del Ray
neighborhood
where Kevin was killed expressed disappointment
with police yesterday after learning that
investigators
kept secret racially sensitive details of the
fatal attack.
"I don't like the truth to be held from
me," said
Loretta Trout, a Del Ray resident whose
grandson
Timmy played with Kevin minutes before the
attack
occurred.
"I want to know what I'm dealing with. I'm
more
frightened of the unknown than the known. I can
handle the known. But being so secretive, it
makes
you think [about] what's really going on," Mrs.
Trout
said.
Carol Jones, a Del Ray resident, also
expressed
anger with the police. "I'd like to have known
the
entire picture if the police knew that from the
beginning. This is a case where a child was
murdered.
They should not have hidden that kind of
information."
Others, however, supported the police.
"I don't know if [knowing racially
sensitive details]
would have helped any," said Norman Bragg, a
Del
Ray resident. "Although I would have liked to
have
seen an arrest happen sooner, but something
like this
takes time."
A Del Ray resident who did not want to be
identified said, "If [the police] knew that
kind of
information they might have lost their sense of
direction in this case.
"Without any solid evidence to support
that they
could have focused in the wrong direction and
wouldn't have caught the killer or found the
cabdriver
or found the knife."
Kevin was playing in the front yard of his
great-grandparents' home in Alexandria's Del
Ray
neighborhood April 19 when a man attacked him
with
a knife without provocation, police said.
A man roughly fitting the attacker's
description, in
custody in Fairfax County on unrelated charges,
has
been connected by DNA evidence to a taxi the
killer
took after the slaying, law enforcement sources
said.
That man, Gregory Devon Murphy, 29, who
lived a
few blocks from where Kevin was killed, served
five
years in prison for a charge of malicious
wounding for
attacking a white man with a hammer in 1993 —
apparently without provocation.
Police last week found a note with the
phrase, "Kill
them racist white kids" in broken and
misspelled
English in a hotel room where Mr. Murphy stayed
two
days before Kevin's slaying.
Police have not named Mr. Murphy as a
suspect
or charged him in connection with Kevin's
killing.
• Daniel F. Drummond contributed to this
report.

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"wipe them out.....all of them!"
Darth Sidious episode I

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