Rebecca and Jon Bieker
[From article]
On Friday, Jan. 9, at around 2 p.m. on a sunny afternoon, four armed individuals entered the shop and encountered Becky Bieker apparently alone behind the counter.
Based on ensuing events, it seems fair to surmise that their intent was robbery.
But whatever their plans may have been, they went awry when Jon Bieker, watching the store’s closed-circuit TV, saw his wife being brutally beaten and emerged from the rear portion of the store to protect and defend her.
The way events were reported by local print and broadcast media, “gunfire broke out”; “shots were fired”; “a shootout ensued”; in the process, three of the individuals were wounded; two were incapacitated and unable to flee, but one wounded robber and his unwounded accomplice fled and were arrested nearby in short order. But Jon Bieker, 44, was fatally wounded and succumbed within hours at a hospital.
One suspect is 18 yrs. old, two are 19 and another is 20. All have now been charged with first-degree murder. Two of them are still hospitalized.
Three of Four Suspects in Gunfight at Shawnee, Kansas Gunshop
[. . .]
It was also several days before any identifying details about the four “teens” were reported; nor were their names reported for several days, and it was longer before their photos were shown.
The cynics among us have almost come to expect that when a journalist’s physical description of a suspect conspicuously omits anything about the suspect’s complexion, there’s a reason.
And that’s part of why the cynics feel that the media are following a template we’ve seen before, as in the way 17 yr. old, 6’2” and 175 lb. “little” Trayvon Martin was characterized as “a child”, accompanied by a childhood photo, and the way Michael Brown of Ferguson, MO was characterized as a “gentle giant”.
But labeling armed robbers as “teens” ought to be a two-way street. If these alleged murderers are indeed “teenagers” -- which carries the subtext that they are therefore not expected to be fully responsible for their decisions and behavior -- I think it would be only fair to involve their parents, and to make them at least subject to questioning.
In the Ferguson, MO case, the media were quick to publish details about Officer Darren Wilson, including his address, which made his family subject to harassment and even death threats.
[. . .]
(Contributions to a memorial fund for Jon Bieker [and to help Becky with expenses] may be made through the Kansas State Rifle Association, at http://www.ksraweb.org/.)
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/01/a_gunfight_in_kansas.html
January 21, 2015
A Gunfight in Kansas
By Stu Tarlowe
