2
'/The Daily Tar Heel/Thursday, July 29, 1993
Shocked town mourns jogger’s death
By Vicki Cheng
Staff Writer
More than 200 people crowded into a
school auditorium last Thursday to
mourn the woman who was killed July
15 while jogging near the school and to
protest the lost sense of security in the
event’s aftermath.
“Like you, I am shocked, angered
and horrified by this senseless act of
violence,” said Chapel Hill Town Coun
cil member Art Werner speaking on
behalf of Mayor Ken Broun, who was
out of the country.
“Like you, I’ve looked for an expla
nation for what happened just outside
this building. And like you, I have no
answer.”
The community speak-out at Guy B.
Phillips Middle School on Estes Drive
began at 7:30 p.m. and lasted until about
9 p.m., when candles were distributed
and a memorial walk was held along the
path Kristin Lodge-Miller, the 26-year
old victim, was traveling when she was
attacked and shot dead.
Lodge-Miller was taking a morning
jog on a path near the school when
police suspect Anthony Georg Simpson,
18, attempted to rape her, police said.
As she broke free, police say he shot her
five times with a handgun.
That morning, police arrested and
charged Simpson, a Chapel Hill High
student, with first-degree murder and
attempted rape. Orange County District
Judge Patricia Love found probable
cause Friday to try him for those charges
in court
The gathering was organized by the
Orange County Rape Crisis Center, the
Orange County Women’s Center and
the Orange-Durham Coalition for Bat
tered Women.
“The purpose is to grieve the loss of
Kristin Lodge-Miller and for people to
grieve the loss of safety,” said Catherine
Dickman of the women’s center. “The
community needed the opportunity to
coalesce around this issue.”
About 25 people took turns at the
microphone, many reading from pre
pared notes and a few breaking into
tears while speaking.
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A candle-light procession mourned the death of Kristin Lodge-Miller by walking along the path she jogged before she was killed
One issue that quickly surfaced was
a woman’s right to feel safe in her
community. Sandra Shahady, a mental
health counselor who works at the Par
sonage Counseling Center Inc. on Estes
Drive, said the short distance between
her building and the site of the crime
made her fear for her own safety.
“I’m really frightened to be in that
building,” she said. “I’ve started to lock
the door all day long. I feel very, very
angry that I as a woman have to be so
frightened to work in a building and
have to keep my door locked every
day.”
At least one man suggested that soci
etal influences played a major role in
outbreaks of violence. “We have a swell
ing rage among people who do not have
the experience of power, so their ex-
pression of power comes out in per- our novels and in our songs,
verted ways,” said Dan Reimer, Orange “If we do not protest what is happen-
County Health Department director. ing on our television screens and in our
“In Chapel Hill and Orange County, movie houses and in our songs, then we
we have a greater disparity between the are complicit in the disastrous state of
haves and the have-nots than in the rest our civilization.”
of this state. In spite of the fact that we As people filed into the auditorium
pride ourselves in having a well-edu- for the speak-out, many lined up to add
cated, highly accomplished community, their names to a list of residents inter
we do have a large sector of our brothers ested in forming a local group to pro
and sisters who are not faring as well as mote gun control,
the rest of us.” Werner said the town was open to
Chapel Hill resident Zach Ralston suggestions for improvements. “For the
blamed much of today’s violence on young woman jogging where anyone
society’s glorification of the gun as a would have thought was one of the
symbol of power. safest parts of town, on a path next to a
“The handgun is the great symbol of reasonably busy street not far from the
violence,” he said. “We give them to police station, to be attacked, chased
our children to play with. We glorify and shot down is beyond my compre
them in our Westerns, in our movies, in hension.”
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Gun ban considered
to curb fear, violence
By Kelly Ryan
Associate Editor
Two weeks after a 26-year-old jog
ger was shot and killed on Estes Drive,
residents and local politicians are ques
tioning whether a local ban on hand
guns is the answer to the increasing
number of gun-related crimes.
Despite a constitutional right to own
a gun, local civil rights attorney Alan
McSurely said government officials
should try to solve the underlying prob
lems behind gun use—such as fear and
alienation instead of simply consid
ering a complete ban.
“We need to take the fears out of the
hearts of law-abiding citizens so they
don’t feel like they need guns to protect
themselves,” he said. “The negative in
centives that this system has created for
poor, young people have very little de
terrent value.”
Kristin Lodge-Miller, a resident of
Shadowood Apartments, was shot five
times July 15 when she went out for an
early morning jog. Police suspect An
thony Georg Simpson, 18, attempted to
rape Lodge-Miller before opening fire
at her across a well-traveled road, po
lice said.
Don Beamon, manager of the Colo
nial Gun Shop in Hillsborough, said
guns should be used strictly for sport. “I
would like never to see someone buying
a gun for the pretense of using it on
another person.”
Beamon said the justice system was
to blame for paroling criminals who
have been convicted of gun-related felo
nies. “We’ve got these cats running
loose on the streets. We’ve got citizens
like you and I getting stopped for speed
ing,” he said.
“There’s something backward about
that. When someone gets caught, pun
ish them. Don’t slap them on the hand
and turn them loose.”
There are no gun shops in Chapel
Hill because students, who are living on
tight budgets, typically are not inter
ested in guns for sport, Beamon said.
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Carl Fox said he thought the new N.C.
gun-storage laws were a step in the right
direction to making schools and streets
safer. The N.C. General Assembly re
cently passed a law that would punish
gun owners if their children committed
crimes using a gun from home.
“Once parents realize that they are
going to be held accountable, they
should be, and hopefully will be, more
careful,” Fox said.
Fox said a ban on handguns just for
Chapel Hill would not be effective be
cause of its close proximity to other
towns and counties.
“Some of the homicides are commit
ted by people who live outside (of Chapel
Hill). It wouldn’t take much— you
could live in the county or in Carrboro.”
Fox said that if a handgun ban were
to be effective, it would have to be
governed by the state and not indi
vidual, local communities.
Chapel Hill Town Council member
Art Werner, who spoke at the vigil last
week about the need for handgun con
trol, said he planned to schedule a pub
lic hearing about the issue in early Sep
tember. “There’s an awful lot of public
outcry for it in Chapel Hill. More than
there was in the past,” Wemer said.
McSurely said that, as a community,
Chapel Hill should work with its youth
to keep them from feeling alienated
from society.
“I would love to see every gun in the
world melted. We could have a big
bonfire on Franklin Street and use it to
build a factory to give 500 jobs to
people,” McSurely said.
“But you can’t just say do away with
handguns withoutmaking an equal com
mitment to jobs.”
Correction
In the July 22 table “Comparison
of UNC faculty salaries,” George
Rabinowitz was misidentified. His
rank is professor, not associate pro
fessor, and he began teaching in 1971.
The DTH regrets the error.