Despite a commenter saying that I should have died in a hit-and-run, and wishing ill upon my family, I stand by my previous post about the cop who shot Thomas Hennelly dead being justified in doing so.
This guy, on this morning, was a danger to anyone around him. Like Peter Eckerson.
“Some would say it’s a miracle Peter Eckerson is alive today. A little more than 24 hours ago, he was mowed down twice by a pickup truck while walking on Broad Street as he walked to class Thursday morning at Temple University.
‘I was walking along, listening to music, heard a noise, looked back, saw a giant blue truck, instantly I got smashed,’ Eckerson told NBC10 Friday in an exclusive interview.
Eckerson says the blue pickup truck knocked him to the ground at Oxford and Broad Street. As police and others rushed to help, Eckerson says the same truck headed back in his direction again — smashing several cars, even a cruiser assigned to narcotics that tried to stop the driver.” [NBC10]
I have sympathy for Hennelly’s friends and family, but can’t muster any for him or any other hit-and-run driver that disregards the safety of others.
View more videos at: http://nbcphiladelphia.com.
First off, the Temple student was only hit once. Yes, the truck may have come back his way when Tommy was backing up, but there is no record of him getting hit twice. And the BIG blue truck was a regular pick-up truck. Yes, Tommy was wrong in hitting the student and the parked cars. But he was a confused, depressed guy that got his hands on drugs too easily — Philly could do a better job at cleaning up the drug scene near Temple. What ever happened to shooting to stop a victim, not shooting to kill when he was unarmed? Any, sadly, there is only one living witness so we’ll never know if he truly said he would shoot the officer or if he actually asked her to shoot his brains out … it is obvious to those that love him that he knew he screwed up and did not want to go on. He leaves behind a beautiful girlfriend and one year old daughter. They would have been happy had he been simply stopped, arrested and put into treatment. But when you are shot in the left chest (a.k.a. heart), it is obvious the officer had one intention only, to shoot to kill. In other states/cities, officers only shoot to kill in response to be shot at themselves. All parole officers are (or are suppose to be) wearing bullet proof vests, so they have time to react and shoot to kill once shot at. Tommy did not have, nor does he even own, a gun. His actions were a cry for help, not a request to be murdered. I hope the Temple student recovers quickly. I am glad God will forgive Tommy for his sins, unlike many of those responding to the press of this incident.
Thanks for the reasoned response to my anti-hit-and-run-driver post, PO. I hope Tommy’s girlfriend and daughter are able to get through the mess his actions brought about.
–Brian
Maybe if Peter was paying attention to his surroundings in North Philly instead of listening to music, he wouldn’t have been hit??! Brian is clearly a perfect example of a self-centered douche who champions causes that are personal to him — ie. if Brian had not been the victim of a hit-and-run he would not give two shits about this case and would not feel the need to demonize the real victim in this case. Poor Temple student Peter will recover from HIS MISTAKE and live a good life, the dead victim will not have a chance to recover from his mistake, and the police officer’s. Its arrogant insensitive assholes like you Brian that make this world a miserable place to live it.
and btw, I have no affiliation with the victim. My comments were completely inspired by your utterly ignorant and insensitive elitist comments. If you’re gonna post ignorant and offensive shit on the internet, then you better be prepared to get some offensive shit throw back at you. asshole.
You are an American hero, Pat. It’s nice to see someone finally standing up for drug addicts who hit people with their cars and threaten to kill cops.
Keep up the great work.