Via Shannon Watts Vultures & Hyenas Corporation:
The 15-year-old daughter of Olympian Tyson Gay died early Sunday at University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital after a shooting at Cook Out restaurant on South Broadway, according to the Fayette County coroner. Trinity Gay was shot in the neck about 4 a.m., police said.Trinity died at 4:41 a.m. at the hospital, according to the coroner. She initially was taken to another hospital by a private vehicle being transferred to UK hospital, police said…
…At around 2 a.m., Trinity Gay made a reference to Cook Out on her Twitter account, and Tweeted “Of course they start shootin”.
I won’t go into the “what’s a 15-year-old doing out so late” since that is probably the first thing that will come to your minds. And for all we know at the time of writing, she was with an adult, maybe a relative, that will eventually come out. Already an arrest has been made and unsurprisingly, the alleged shooter is a felon with a record for cocaine trafficking: Dvonta Middlebrooks.
Cook Out is a chain of fast food restaurants that advertise inexpensive food and the particular location shows that they stay open till 4:00 AM. One of the things about nighttime is that few locales are open to the public and they attract people who are partying, working or even committing crimes. In case nobody has told you, even bad guys get hungry and want a bite of something to calm their stomachs. So, what you have at Oh Dark Hundred when you want to get that burger, is the very strong chance that you will be rubbing elbows with some unsavory characters. Maybe nothing will happen or maybe, like in this case, you catch a bullet addressed to whom it may concern because one set of bad guys saw another set and they were declared enemies.
I have worked nights or part nights most of my adult life. I learned that it is better to carry my lunch and eat at work rather than chance going out for take out. But I also made the effort to learn where are the restaurants where cops like go eat and which by definition criminals avoid.
And as always… if you play stupid games…
Update: A second set of arrests has been made. Chazerae Taylor (Felon), and D’markeo Taylor, father and son.
Update 2: Via David Yamane who got is a screen cap and the Twitter username for Trinity Gay.
Here is a screen cap times and dates:
And David’s full screen cap:
The question remains: Is there another explanation for “Of course they start shootin” other than a previous exchange of gunfire?
Really sad and concerning, since gun people often note that violence is concentrated in particular bad locations. But this Cookout is just a couple blocks from the University of Kentucky campus — and 0.6 miles from the hotel I will be staying at later this week! :O
I know that many students at my university will study into the early morning hours and then make a “Cookout Run” because the dining options on campus at that hour are slim.
I also know that just because you are near a university doesn’t mean that you are far from trouble. A student at my university, in fact, was shot very near campus a couple of months ago. https://gunculture2point0.wordpress.com/2016/06/18/a-student-at-my-university-was-shot-last-week-it-could-have-been-me/
Of course, there are also some particulars to this case that suggest the death might have been avoided. I am particularly interested in learning more about why she Tweeted about people shooting at Cookout at 2am but then was shot at that same Cookout at 4am. Perhaps the early news reports don’t have the timeline exactly right? If the timeline is right, WOW!
That is interesting, I agree. But the details were so sketchy and we have been burned so many times by the press, I decided to initially treat it as a misprint. I tried looking for the Twitter account but could not find it.
I have a screen cap of the Twitter page but don’t think I can post it here. If you want it, let me know how to get it to you.
Actually, Miguel, I just sent this to you as a message on the GFZ Facebook page
1. Cookout is a pretty good fast food place, cheaper and better tasting than McDonald’s and the food looks like it will actually spoil and not become hockey pucks.
2. Haven’t checked out dvonta, but isn’t he/she the same “nonviolent”(read: drug dealer caught with a firearm that pleas down to a drug charge instead of a drug + firearm charge) criminals that usually get released from prison via obamas waving his hand?
The Ky Offender site said the earliest he was to be released was 2017. I have no idea what was he doing in the streets, maybe some sort of advanced parole?
Alternate hypothesis: “shootin” could translate to “using drugs” and not gunfire.
Rhetorical evidence: Reference to “shootin” at 1:19 am; at 1:56 am she’s still on-site? Eating!? And asking questions on Twitter about the food!?
Also, she didn’t get shot until ~4 am. [sarc] That’s a really slow bullet, to take over 2 1/2 hours to travel across a restaurant. I’ve seen old ladies using walkers who take only 20 minutes to make the same trip. [/sarc]
Conclusion: The use of the word “shootin” — which has several definitions, depending on context (which is not provided) — may not refer to gunfire, but to some other activity. However, the activity in question may be tangentially related to the gunfire; drug-running thugs tend to be violently protective of their “turf”.
“hanging around stupid places” comes to mind now.