I will never forget where I was or what I was doing the night I learned of the brutal murder of Oregon teenager Larnell Malik Bruce. It was just hours ago and reminded me so much of when I first learned of the brutal police murder of Alton Sterling.
Just like that night last month, I was with my kids. Traditionally, when I am with my family in the evening, I don’t check my phone. Tonight though, it kept buzzing and dinging repeatedly. Text messages, direct messages on Twitter, emails, they were coming in from all over. When that happens in my world, it almost always means something horrible has taken place. This time was no different.
On Monday, I wrote a story about a black mother outside of Cleveland who was shot and killed on her way to work by a raving white madman after he ran a red light and rammed his Jeep into her car.
On Tuesday, I wrote a story about a 19-year-old black college student who was shot and killed on his way to work while he was driving his car through his Delaware neighborhood. Police arrested a 46-year-old white woman and charged her with first-degree murder. It seemed almost like the killing was done by a sniper.
Today, though, is a story that feels like it was ripped straight out of the 1960s.
Larnell Bruce, who was 19, had just moved to Gresham, Ore., which is near Portland, earlier this year to live with his younger brother and mother. Little did he know, that a random night in August would force him to come eye to eye with a notorious white supremacist and prison gang leader, Russell Courtier.
Near midnight on Aug. 10, outside of a local 7-Eleven, Larnell Bruce was charging his cell phone and having small talk with friends and passersby when Courtier and his girlfriend drove up to the store. Almost instantly, security camera footage shows a full melee breaking out between Bruce and Courtier. According to the Portland Mercury, Courtier’s girlfriend, Colleen Hunt, could be overheard yelling “Get him, baby, get him.” Soon after, Courtier smashed Bruce’s head into the front window of the convenience store.
When Bruce pulled out a knife to protect himself, Courtier and Hunt got back into their Jeep. What happened next, much like seeing the Baton Rouge officer shoot Alton Sterling in the chest and back, shook me to my core.
Source: New York Daily News | Shaun King
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