Citizen Kills 2 Over a $50.00 Debt

[Citizens GoneCrazy]

Jun. 18, 2004
ARIZONA It began with a $50 debt, police say.
But when Lonnie Allen Bassett realized he couldn't pay up, the
16-year-old pulled out a gun during a car ride, shot to death the man he
owed, and fatally wounded the man's girlfriend driving the car,
authorities said.
The woman's foot bore down on the accelerator, and the car crashed into
a telephone pole. Police said that Bassett jumped out, somehow made it
back to his parents' home in Glendale and - still covered in blood -
climbed into bed.
Nearly 48 hours after the shooting, police on Thursday night took
Bassett into custody as he left a Phoenix house. He was arrested on
suspicion of two counts of first-degree murder and taken to Juvenile
Court Center.
"It makes me angry," said Del Trumbull, whose 22-year-old niece, Frances
Tapia, was one of the two people slain. "It's over $50. How can somebody
take two lives over 50 bucks?"
Phoenix Detective Tony Morales said Bassett owed $50 to Joseph Pedroza,
22. The teenager apparently hitched a ride with Pedroza and Tapia late
Tuesday and an argument broke out between the two men during the car
ride.
The shooting occurred about 2 a.m. Wednesday in the area of 47th Avenue
and Acoma Drive. Police later recovered a weapon from the trunk of the
car, a 2000 Nissan Sentra belonging to Pedroza's sister.
Pedroza's mother, Rachel Medrano, said she hopes Bassett will be tried
as an adult.
"It's just too much," Medrano said. "Fifty dollars for a human life? Oh,
a human life is worth much more than anything in this world."
Medrano didn't know Bassett and said Pedroza had never mentioned him.
Tapia's children, Athina and Nina, don't understand what happened. The
eldest child remains silent, while the youngest girl "walks around
saying, 'My mommy's dead,'" Trumbull says.

[Tim Alciere]

Post Brought To You Courtesy Of PBA & Fop Stooge

[DJ]

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????? Am I missing something here?

"The gravest abuse of power - and the gravest threats to personal liberty and
security - are those in which the very individuals to whom we look for the
preservation of law and order turn out to be the predators."