Your hearts are broken. You have lost a son. Any way it goes down, it is a tragedy. I am the mother of 3 young men and I hate to think that the mistakes they make in their early adulthood would result in ruined lives. I can even remember the mistakes I made in my early adult years and I would not want to be judged on those mistakes. None of us were fully adult in those early years. Stupid is what I would call it.

Did you teach young Michael to not steal? If you did, how do you explain his theft of the cigars?

Did you teach young Michael to not hurt others? If you did, why did he strong-arm the clerk at the store?

Did you teach young Michael that smoking dope isn’t good? Did the dope make him forget that stealing is bad and hurting others is not acceptable?

Did you teach Michael that the police are bad or out to get young black males?

If Michael had been taught that stealing and hurting others is bad, and he had done these awful things anyway, it still could have all been handled in a way that wouldn’t have torn apart so many people’s lives. If you had taught him to respect the police, he would have been arrested and thrown in jail. If this was his first offense, he would have gotten a minor sentence or probation. Instead, he attacked the officer and the officer used lethal force to defend himself.

A town is ruined, and so many lives are ruined. All for $100 theft. So sad.