Tom Courtney reading.
Detroit, May, 2009
Scary how crime
can sneak up on you. One of our students (Wayne State University), a woman with great potential, working for Hospice of Michigan as an intern and graduating from our Masters of Public Administration Program, was killed last weekend by her boyfriend. He was back in Detroit trying out for the Detroit Lions.A forme
r standout football player at Savannah State, he faces a murder charge in Michigan.Dearborn, Mich., police said 28-year-old Javorris Jackson is accused in the shooting death of his girlfriend at a hotel. The victim, 26-year-old Courtney Solomon died early Sunday morning.
Dearborn police said Jackson suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest and remains hospitalized.
He was arraigned on Tuesday and awaits a preliminary hearing.
Jackson was shot several years ago in an unexplained crime. His recovery may have cost him a NFL career and perhaps his sanity. His brother is on the Detroit Lions. The family is from Inkster, a Detroit suburb.
The sad thing is, none of the articles talks about Courtney Solomon. She was about to earn her master's degree in Public Administration, go into hospital administration. Her mother called the school immediately after the crime to see if her daughter would still be awarded her degree. Could we honor her work and her dream? I sure hope so. Something good should come out of this.
This could happen anywhere, but too often it happens here.
And for more My Town Monday posts, check out Travis Erwin.
14 comments:
What a tragedy. Violent crime touches so many more people than the victim.
I hope the University awards her degree posthumously.
The night before his Graduation from SUNY at Buffalo this week, a young mechanical engineering student was shot in the back and died as he walked back to his apartment. Sadly, it happens here, too,
Something seems to touch off these incidents at the end of the year.
We've already reached out average murder rate for the year and it's only May. A bloody 2009 for sure.
Well, stress, Patti. The end of an academic year is no fun for serious students, particularly if they or their near and not always dear are unbalanced.
Holidays loom for those who survive academe.
It does get to the point that you'd rather give them all As and live.
Very tragic story.
This is what we do here better than anyone, anywhere else in America. With reckless abandon we slaughter the best among us and then wonder why the hole just gets deeper and darker.
WSU I hope is not intransigent in regards to her mother's need.
What a loving tribute. So often the men are named, the women ignored.
Have you read The War on Women - by Vallee? Horrific statistics.
Excellent post.
Well, my friend and classmate, Courtney Solomon will indeed be given her MPA posthumously by WSU. I do not yet know when that will occur. I suspect it will be done within a reasonable amount of time. I do not yet know all the details, such as whether it will happen during a regular commencement exercise, but I never doubted for a moment that the faculty of the MPA program and the Department of Political Science would do the right thing. By the way, I am DELIGHTED to finally see something online about Courtney instead of her murderer! Meanwhile, I have decided to focus my energy, grief, and anger toward two endeavors - keeping sufficient pressure on the prosecutor's office to prevent pleading the charges down to some trivial crime, and discovering WHY no one in the media has covered any of this from the victim's point of view. --And shame on the Detroit Free Press for publishing such a pathetic article in the sports section about how difficult it is to understand how such a great guy could have done this. I don't know of very many "innocent victims" of gunshot wounds who recover and go on the carry weapons around when meeting a girlfriend. Since he had only flown to Michigan a week earlier, could not have taken the gun on the plane, and hadn't sufficient time to register in Michigan for a CCW permit, where did that gun come from? Sorry. I'm venting too much. I'll hush up for now...
Janis-You need to vent. Both my husband and I work in the PS Dept. Everyone feels horrible about what happened. Including the people at Hospice of Michigan where she interned. She was a valued student and employee. It is sickening to see just her name in the many articles I looked at it. Thanks for coming online to remember her.
Thanks for supporting my rant. I've met your husband, and will be taking classes with him soon. I look forward to meeting you as well. I'll keep you posted on my "mighty roar" project.
What a terrible tragedy. These things happen far too often. I know Courtney will be missed. She had such potential.
Exactly.. this is terrible tragedy.
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