Tuesday, February 28, 2006

If only and what if



Imette St. Guillen a graduate student, was found dead Saturday evening. The news didn’t start to filter around my school until yesterday. She was found dead in the East NY section of Brooklyn. Imette was only 24 years old, she would have been 25 this Thursday. According to the latest reports she was asphyxiated, and sexually assaulted. The police also believe that she was gang raped,and her body showed signs of torture. The animal that killed her chopped off her long hair, and stuffed a sock down her throat. He then wrapped her face in clear tape and dumped her nude body near a highway. The clear, plastic tape left her face frozen in an expression of horror that made her almost unrecognizable to her family, The coroners office says she appeared to be in excruciating pain when she died.

Ever since I heard the news I have felt an ache in my heart. This is a story made all the more painful because it is too close to home, she was a student at my school. It has brought tears to my eyes. I can imagine how scared she was. Many a time I have been a little shaken when coming home late at night. She was bar lounging with friends on a Friday night. How many times have my crew and I done the same exact thing? She was only a year older than me, studying the same major. We would have been graduating together. Although we didn’t share a class room we did share professors, a school and several neighborhoods. She lived in the neighborhood where I was born and raised, where my family still lives. She was hanging out with her friends in an area that my friends and I frequent, in a bar that my friends and I have been to. The only difference in our stories is that she was left behind by her friends. She wanted to chill longer to stay until closing time which was a half hour away. Her friends wanted to leave, so she stayed behind all alone. Her body was found in an area of Brooklyn where I have friends and family. My friends and I have a rule we adhere to when we go out. We arrive as a group we leave as a group, no one gets left behind. If someone wants to chill longer and the others want to leave, we stay, we compromise. No one is left behind. If someone meets a cute guy, hurry up and exchange numbers because I am not leaving you behind with him or alone with him no matter what you tell me. I don’t know him.

Because of the type of college we attend and our majors we as students are taught how to recognize and prevent crimes. We are taught how to spot the warning signs of a potential criminal in those we meet. As students of a school specializing in criminal justice and forensics we should be more aware and keep our guard up in everyday situations, more than the general public. We know what’s out there, we eat the statistics, the criminal profiles and case studies for breakfast. However no one ever thinks this is going to happen to them do they? As young people sometimes we think we are immortal, nothing can touch us we are invincible. Stuff like that happens to other people not us, never us we have a destiny to fulfill.

It was 3:30 am when Imette was last seen alive; she wanted to chill, her friends wanted to bounce. When you're depending on the subway to get you back home to the upper west side 3:30 am waiting for a ride home in that area is like a life time in hell. Catching a cab at that time is nothing short of a miracle. Once 4:00 am hits the subways are running on ultra slow, you can spend up to an hour waiting on the platform for a train.I know it's happened to me many a time. I can understand her friend’s reluctance at wanting to hang around the bar until 4:00 am. I imagine that now they wish they had hung out for the extra half hour even if it meant getting home around 6 am. My heart breaks for her family and friends, especially those who were with her on her last night. I imagine they are full of regrets, their dreams haunted with “what if” and“ if only”. There but for the grace of God goes many a young woman. There but for the grace of God go I.



Story Link:Beauty & The Beast

Labels: news items

Posted by @ 3:39 PM
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