over in Muscle Shoals/Tuscumbia. That's about 45 minutes to an hour west of us. The fact that we had a murder here and it's huge news should tell you just how non-violent and rather pleasant this area is in the macro. Still, like a lot of places, we have wannabes and we have drug trade. Where there are drugs, or anything of value that's illegal, that 'certain element' of society will creep through. It appears to have been a rather brutal murder. I will just link the image of the 2 victims. If I embedded it here, the image would be massive. You can see the victims here http://pen-n-sword.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/murcol.jpg Here's what we know as of this moment. They pulled up at a place called Jody's Restaurant, which is like a truck stop/diner on Highway 20. The guy was shot 8 times in and around the head from almost point blank range. The gal died from a gunshot wound to her femoral artery. She was outside the car when this happened. The police are looking for anyone who saw them in the run up to those events, and they are either going through his phone or looking for his phone, since they believe there may be a communication there that led to this incident. There's other pictures of the guy on his facebook where he has Crip tattoos on his stomach. Most of his Facebook pictures including the one above is him in the Colbert County Jail. He obviously took great pride in the 'thug life.' When the murder was announced, and they released the victims names, I popped over to check out her Facebook page and it was still wide open at the time. Her last post was a cartoon picture of a black dude with a 'gangsta' look and the caption read 'Just because he a hood nigga, don't mean he ain't a good nigga.' Those are rap lyrics btw. She included something like 'My kinda man!' The thing is, she appears to be a good girl from a good family. Her dad is a cop. She's just a kid with a rebellious side and a taste for 'bad boys' who paid the ultimate price for that ridiculous choice in men. In these parts, it's not all that uncommon to meet gals who are in their 30s on their 3rd marriage and kids from before any of those marriages. It appears, she was right on that path and sadly, she didn't get to grow up to see the other side. All of this, tragic though it may be, I'm quite sure is not really news to any of you. We've all been around the block enough times to have seen this come and go. What's interesting to me is that we have 2 local blogs called Shoalanda Speaks and "Pen-And-Sword" which serve as sort of watch dogs on local crime activities, as well as corrupt politicians. Needless to say, they stay pretty busy. I've seen them take on some pretty big fish, and some of those big fish are really wealthy, powerful men who have made more than their fair share of folks go away. However, these 2 blogs continue to be bullied by the local community of poorer whites in the area who are just throwing a huge fuss over the blogs 'portrayal' of the 2 victims. By my count, pen and sword has taken down at least 5 blog postings about the crime and Shoalanda has virtually stopped reporting on it other than to seek information about the crime. No one asks to be killed, but a white dude 'in the life' with Crip tattoos and little country white girls from good families who run around with them are putting themselves in a very dangerous position. How they lived HAD EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THEM BEING IN THAT POSITION. Still, no one wants to talk about that and oddly, our local crime fighter blogs seem to be backing down from the noise made by that local community. It's the damndest thing. I'd bet both my nuts that when all is said and done, this was a gang hit. It wasn't a robbery, dude was found with $1100 on his person. To top it off, someone I know pretty well happened to have stopped there with her husband and they walked out immediately after the gun fire to find the aftermath of this ugly incident. That poor gal will be in therapy forever over that. It's cruel to say, but while bad men pulled the trigger, it was the apathy toward the victim's lifestyle of friends and family that led those 2 poor souls to their door.[/url]