commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Every time I hear of a Good Samaritan coming to the aid of a crime victim, I bask in the milk of human kindness and find myself thinking that maybe the world isn’t such a bad place after all. But I’m also very aware that every time you step up to the plate to try and help a crime victim in need, you are placing yourself in an indeterminate amount of jeopardy. After all, criminals who strong-arm, rape or rob folks, oftentimes in public places, are far from the most trustworthy folks coming down the pike.
And, as the man of the house (allegedly), I’ve been asked a time or two by my wife and daughter what I would do if one of them was assaulted by the bad guy from hell and I always tell them that I would lay down my own life to save them if it became necessary, and I think I’m sincere when I say that.
But, of course, you never truly know how you will respond to such a high-stakes challenge until you are actually confronted by one.
During the past few days, we have two disturbing stories – one from California and one from Virginia — in which good Samaritans WERE KILLED as they tried to aid crime victims. In the California case, the Good Sam was a stranger who just happened to be passing by as the victim was robbed and stabbed by the suspect who was later arrested. In the Virginia case, the Good Sam was the 8-year-old brother of the victim, a 12-year-old girl who was raped by a stranger.
An Inland Empire man Sunday chased down a purse thief who stabbed a mother in a parking lot, only to be stabbed himself.
Troy Cansler, of Yucaipa, died from his injuries.
The Good Samaritan’s wife is still trying to make sense of it.
“He didn’t think about what might happen. He always thought he was invincible,” Cansler’s wife, Autum, said. “I always thought he was pretty invincible, too…but he wasn’t. But that was pretty heroic what he did.”
According to the police, the attack occurred Sunday night in a parking lot on the 33000 block of Yucaipa Boulevard in the hot town of Yucaipa. (I say ‘hot town’ because Yucaipa, like all Inland Empire communities, is deadly hot much of the year.)
The robbery victim was a young mother with a 2-year-old child. Like many of us do when we are unloading items from our cars, the mom had put her purse down on the roof of her car when the thief snatched it. She confronted him and he stabbed her with a knife.
Mr. Troy Cansler happened along just as the robbery was occurring. He apparently confronted the thief who fled, with Cansler in hot pursuit. The precise interaction between the two men when Cansler caught up with the thief is unclear, but things went South very quickly and he was fatally stabbed during the altercation.
“He died a hero, knowing that he did something good, and that he saved two people, not only one, by taking his own life. And that’s the ultimate thing you can do,” Cansler’s daughter Jordyn Glazier said.
The mother Cansler helped save is already home from the hospital and is recovering.
As for The Prick (now known more formally as the suspect), the police were able to track him down in a nearby bar after the attacks.
What a freakin’ moron! First he robs and stabs a mother with a baby. Then he stabs and kills the Good Sam. Then he hides in a nearby bar, as if that was going to fly. I’m curious what he was drinking.
“I just want to know why. Why would they want to rob a woman with a baby? What did they think they were going to get from her?” Autum Cansler said.
Jordyn Glazier says she’s trying to stay strong: “I just ask for everyone that knows me and that sees me on here that they just give me hope when I go back to school.”
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The second case of a Good Sam going down hard comes to us out of Richmond, Virginia. Arden Dier of the Newser staff writes:
A gut-wrenching case out of Richmond, Virginia, though the details remain murky: Family members say an 8-year-old boy was killed via a rock or brick to the head when he tried to fight off a teen who was sexually assaulting his 12-year-old sister. The siblings were playing near railroad tracks in their backyard last night when, relatives say, a teenage boy attacked the girl, WRIC reports.
“From what I understand, the sister was raped and (the brother) tried to save her,” the children’s aunt says, per the New York Daily News. “And he was hit in the head with a brick and killed.”
After the rape, the girl was spotted running out of the woods naked and bleeding. The victim initially gave police a false description of her attacker as a white man with facial hair – according to the police because the suspect threatened her before fleeing. Law enforcement eventually tracked down a black, teenage male, WWBT reports.
“Nobody expects something like this to happen to the babies in their family,” says a relative. As for the young girl, “She’s just traumatized.”
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These cases demonstrate the danger of opting to be Good Sam with all the force of a locomotive flashing through town. And yet, suppose none of us ever found the courage to step up help others when they are besieged by (un)common criminals? What kind of a world would we live in then?
My heart goes out to this week’s two Good Sams who, sadly, will not only be mourned by their friends and families until hell freezes over, but even worse, will never again be able to reach down deep at that moment of truth when help is on the way but only if you have the courage to bring it.