Tag: North Carolina

Living in another world, not far away

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This column appeared in The Herald-Sun in February 2014:

I live less than three miles up the Durham Freeway from where police say a man accidentally shot a baby with a gun stashed in the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt on Wednesday morning.

The only thing that’s liable to go off in one of my pockets is my phone, pinging as yet another Words with Friends challenge arrives.

That usually doesn’t hurt anything but my ego.

So why in the world would Arin Tavon Futrell pack a gun in his pocket while standing on the porch of his girlfriend’s house on Macon Street?

What was he thinking?

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Journalism, Non-Fiction, Sample Columns

Violence highlights need for change

Posted on By Brody No Comments on Violence highlights need for change

This column appeared in The Herald-Sun in December 2013:

In the past two weeks, DeWarren K. Langley has faced the prospect of attending two funerals for murder victims he’s known.

The first was for Patrick Danial Holmes, a 24-year-old man who Langley saw at a recent prison summit at a local church, where Holmes had talked about the struggle of a convicted felon trying to find honest work after incarceration.

Durham police say James Edward Walker, 22, gunned Holmes down on Fidelity Drive the evening of Dec. 2.

But the second really seemed to strike close to home for Langley, a community and youth advocate.

Someone fired a gun near an apartment on Commerce Street where Darren Taylor slept. Taylor, a 27-year-old father who walked his daughter to the Community Family Life and Recreation Center at Lyon Park every day, died days later of his injuries.

“You don’t hear a lot about young black fathers raising children, instilling values in children, encouraging them to get an education,” Langley said. “For him to have been at home, minding his business, asleep, and be hit by a stray bullet is disheartening in a community where so many great things are going on.”

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Journalism, Non-Fiction, Sample Columns

Crankiness in a week of thanks

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I blame it on the Metamucil ad in my Facebook feed.

The fiber supplement showed up the other day, right before Thanksgiving, and I got to thinking about how the advertisements that appear in the feed are most likely inspired by links and the content of status updates shared by users.

Have I really started getting old now, I wondered? Even on Facebook?

I remarried in March. Six months ago, we got a child. Since then, I’ve done so much less of the things that would have resulted in advertisements for gadgets, computer games and movies.

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Journalism, Non-Fiction, Sample Columns

A long wait for justice

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Patricia Mann and Jesse McBane

The following column appeared in The Herald-Sun in November 2013:

Jesse McBane and Patricia Mann saw a future together.

In 1971, he was an N.C. State student and she attended nursing school at Watts Hospital – now part of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics campus within blocks of my home. He was 19; she was 20. They planned to marry.

On Feb. 11, on a cold, misty night, they went to a Valentine’s Day dance. Then they drove a car Jesse shared with his brother Marty to Crosdaile Country Club and parked near a pond.

Nearly two weeks later, they were found strangled, bound to an oak in an unpaved cul-de-sac just a couple of miles away over the Orange County line. It appeared that the killer repeatedly tightened and loosened the ropes around their necks, taking them to the brink of unconsciousness and bringing them back. It’s not clear how long that went on.

The murder drew detectives from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Durham County Sheriff’s Office, Durham Police Department and the State Bureau of Investigation. But in the past 42 years, none of those agencies has managed to crack the case.

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Journalism, Non-Fiction, Sample Columns