1,000 Say Goodbye to Slain Wal-Mart Clerk

[Conservativesux]

1,000 Say Goodbye to Slain Wal-Mart Clerk

Jan. 10, 2005


By ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press Writer

TYLER, Texas - More than 1,000 mourners gathered Saturday at a funeral service for a Wal-Mart clerk whose chilling abduction was captured on surveillance videotape.


Friends and family remembered Megan LeAnn Holden, 19, as a beautiful, compassionate young woman known for her smile. Photos of Holden growing up — in her softball uniforms, at her sister's wedding and being silly with friends — were shown on a large screen behind her coffin.


"To know Megan was to love Megan," said Jeff Stanley, her former youth minister. "You couldn't get to know her ... without falling in love with who she was."


Holden had attended only one day at Tyler Junior College before she was abducted on Jan. 19 after finishing her night shift at the Wal-Mart. Her body was found two days later in a ditch 380 miles away in western Texas. Police said she had been shot.


Police arrested Johnny Lee Williams, 24, two days later at an Arizona hospital seeking treatment for a gunshot wound after a robbery attempt. He was driving Holden's truck, police said.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050130/ap_on_re_us/clerk_abducted_funeral

[Solon]

1. A tragedy, horrible as it is...

Call me a cynic, but I bet that Wal*Mart made a pretty penny off the crime. Life insurance for employees is SOP for the SOBs.

[twaddler01]

2. sad but true...

;(

[pop goes the weasel]

9. illegal in TX

so, no, Walmart didn't make money off her death. There are a few good things about Texas, and that's one of them.

[SoCalDem]

3. What do you want to bet..

that Megan's family had to borrow money to bury her:cry:

No one expects to have to pay for a funeral for a teenager:(

[NEOBuckeye]

4. Suspect was a Marine who served in IRAQ

Poor girl. She died before she even had a chance to truly begin living her life. Nineteen years old is way too young.

Think of her dreams, hopes and ambitions. They've all been destroyed and are gone. Forever. Think of her family and all of the memories that will no longer be made. There will always be a void in their hearts where their daughter, sister, cousin and friend once existed.

Johnny Lee Williams may be her murderer, but the cycle of pain did not begin, nor will it end with him. The American People themselves have failed this young woman. They failed her by allowing men like George W. Bush and Dick Cheney the opportunity to gain power and abuse that power to make war, the war where Miss Holden's suspected murderer was sent to fight as a Marine.

And so, the cycle of pain, suffering and death now spreads from Iraq, back to America in a subtle, yet insideous way:

--

It was Christmas when Linda Williams last saw her nephew, Johnny Lee Williams Jr., at her home in Tyler. He had always been quiet, but usually a crowd brought him out of his shell.

This time, something was different. "It was a house full of people," she said. "He couldn't stand it. He just couldn't stand a crowd of people anymore."

Nicknamed "Binky" because of his weight, Ms. Williams said, Johnny shaved off the pounds so he could serve in the military.

"He was real active, jolly, you know, loved music. Real quiet. He's never been a big talker, but in a crowd of people" he would open up, she said. "He was a total different person when he came back from Iraq ... Anger, no laughing."

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13803056&BRD=1994&PAG=461&dept_id=227937&rfi=8

[sweetbutterfly]

5. Weird

But the reason they caught her killer is because he tried to rob a man who HAD A GUN and shot him! Am starting to think that maybe all this gun control stuff is wrong and if more of us were legally armed there would be less, not more crime.

[saigon68]

6. A whole lot less in my opinion

Imagine if armed robbers started to drop like flies in liquor store hold-ups.

[TahitiNut]

12. I think (Army) Basic Training should be a prerequisite to carrying arms.

:evilgrin:


If we had a Universal National Service law, that wouldn't be a problem.

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. Yep. An armed society is a polite society.

:-)

But yes, it's too bad the gun controllers never care to hear about the tens of thousands of times every year people protect themselves, successfully, and without even firing a shot, by having a gun. And the ones who do, sadly, have to fire a shot but protect the innocent.

I would never wish on anyone that they should be legally required to be defenseless.

[LisaL]

15. Well, I just saw it on the news-one 14 year old shot another

14 year old in the head. The victim could be paralyzed for life. How many cases like this are happening around this country? I bet way more than are cases of people being able to protect themselves from criminals.

[biftonnorton]

19. Could be, but I doubt it

in the meantime, you can check out Second Amendment Sisters 9 myths of gun control.

"Compared to about 35,000 gun deaths every year, 2.5 million good Americans use guns to protect themselves, their families, and their livelihoods - there are 65 lives protected by guns for every life lost to a gun - five lives are protected per minute - and, of those 2.5 million protective uses of guns, about 1/2 million are believed to have saved lives"

http://www.2asisters.org/education/ninemyths.htm

[biftonnorton]

8. Legally Armed AND Thoroughly Trained

so as to not be at risk of negligently hurting someone. I wish Ms. Holden had been armed and sharply aware of that asshat coming up behind her, and I wish Dru Sjodin would've had a gun instead of a cellphone in her hand when she was accosted. I hope they both were at least given the option of getting a permit and training and did not decline on basis of anti-gun sentiment of society at large. I hate to think about them living their last moments in terror as helpless victims, and hope that the reason they didn't have a gun was not that they were shamed away from it.

A site that was influential for me is in the link below. The posters the site owner made about women being able to defend themselves make a lot of sense; some of the stuff seems a little over the top, as with most sites dedicated to opinions and ideals.

http://www.a-human-right.com/introduction.html

Blessings on the family. They will never feel truly whole again.

[LisaL]

14. Well, sure, she would have been able to protect herself then.

Does she have eyes on her back?

[biftonnorton]

16. Part Of Training

is situational awareness. I doubt that she had "eyes on her back", but part of being trained well is to be taught how to be situationally aware. If nothing else, people learn to be able to draw from concealment if they determine that's the best course of action even in awkward situations where the attacker has the upper hand. Another part of training is learning to wait for your opportunity to turn things around even if you are taken by total surprise. Sometimes you can't do that, but it sure is nice to be trained, equipped and have the option. Not having the option to learn or to legally carry is horrible.

[shrike]

10. we have guns in our house

Yet I am not necessarily pro-gun -- or anti-gun.

Nor do I think widespread gun ownership would make for a less violent society.

People are armed to the teeth where I live, and I daresay our crime rate is no better or worse than other metropolitan areas of similar size.

My major beef with many gun "owners" is that they disrespect the lethal weapons they own. They don't get training, they learn how to properly store or handle a gun. My husband has had guns all his life and his number one rules are: a. never bring a loaded gun into the house. b. NEVER, EVER, point a gun at anyone unless you intend to use it. (He's never had to.)

Yet I know plenty of people who leave loaded guns in easily accessible places, allow children into the house when guns aren't properly secured and basically take a lackadaisical approach to owning a weapon. I have a friend who carries a handgun with him at all times (we're a right to carry state). He agrees with my assessment 100 percent.

I also know a pair of married cops who are raising a young family. They keep their guns in a safe in the basement. The female half of the couple told me once, "The odds are much greater that someone in this house (she's talking about visitors; their kids know about gun safety) will be injured or killed than that we will suffer a break-in or burglary.)"

[LisaL]

13. The girl was also killed with a gun.

How many people are murdered and how many are able to protect themselves?
:eyes:

[biftonnorton]

18. Stats don't matter much

when it's just you and the attacker. What would you want to have in YOUR hand? Personally, I'll have the most effective weapon I can legally have. I've heard a good splattering nervous puke can dissuade some attacks, but I can shoot farther with a gun.

[LisaL]

20. O'key. A 19 year old Wall Mart Employee and a Iraqi War Veteran..

Hmm. Which one would be able to shoot and kill another one? Even if both were armed...
:eyes:

[Conservativesux]

22. Lots more "accidents" like homicide/suicide with a gun in the home

[TahitiNut]

11. Why do I think it's far more likely that the Wal*Mart in Tyler, Texas ...

... will hold a "Remember Megan Sale" than close for a day in honor of her?


(I wonder when they'll rename the "Great Wall-Mart of China". :dunce: )

[progressivebydesign]

17. National story because it was caught on tape, or because she was pretty..

.. that it garnered such media attention and a funeral of 1,000 people? Because a 15 year old hispanic girl here in my state was murdered by her boyfriend (allegedly), and didn't warrant any media coverage beyond our region.

Do the news media pounce because it's on tape? Or is it because she was "beautiful", as the media are reporting it?

It's tragic in any case, I just wonder why some stories get such coverage, and most others do not.

[LisaL]

21. There are many people killed and shot each day.

This story caught attention because abduction was caught on tape and there was a chance the girl was still alive.

[Conservativesux]

23. Dont tell that to the gun lobby. They dont want to hear about it.