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F****** idiot parents!!!!
From www.orlandosentinel.com ( article )
The reason I was hard on the father is because his reaction to an otherwise trivial matter led to the death of his daughter. The guy who pulled the trigger and the idiot in the other car are to blame as well, but the father could have very well left things alone and everyone would have been OK. Of course, that is IF there isn't more to this story than is being reported.
Any way, here it is...
The reason I was hard on the father is because his reaction to an otherwise trivial matter led to the death of his daughter. The guy who pulled the trigger and the idiot in the other car are to blame as well, but the father could have very well left things alone and everyone would have been OK. Of course, that is IF there isn't more to this story than is being reported.
Any way, here it is...
quote:
5-year-old killed after car chase
By Jim Buynak
Sentinel Staff Writer
February 3, 2003
LEESBURG -- A father's road-rage dispute ended with his 5-year-old daughter dead and mother-in-law wounded after a 12-mile car chase and what investigators called an ambushlike shooting.
The Saturday night road dispute escalated when the two cars pulled off the road near two parked pickups, and someone from one of the trucks fired three shots into the father's car, investigators said.
How the pickups' occupants knew about the chase -- from near Wildwood, through Leesburg and Fruitland Park and back toward Wildwood -- is not clear. Investigators still are looking for suspects.
Marishka Lovett was shot in the head in the back seat and pronounced dead at Leesburg Regional Medical Center.
Marishka, a Treadway Elementary School kindergartner, was described as a sweet and energetic child who loved basketball.
"All she wanted to be was a basketball player," Ottawa Lovett said of her only child, choking back tears Sunday night at her Leesburg home. "That's what she dreamed about."
Her grandmother, Sandra Vickson, 46, of Marianna, lost part of a finger, said Lt. Bobby Caruthers of the Sumter County Sheriff's Office.
Vickson was treated at LRMC for an injury to the middle finger on her right hand.
The car chase started when one driver cut off the other near Wildwood, Caruthers said.
Tyrone Lovett, 30, 11440 Huggins St., was driving a gold Ford Escort and got into a cat-and-mouse-type chase on State Road 44 shortly after 10 p.m. Lovett described the other car as a dark-colored Camaro, Firebird or Trans Am with a T-top.
"Both of them were chasing each other," Caruthers said. "They would pass each other and chase each other."
The chase entered Lake County and then turned around as the cars headed west on County Road 466A, back into Sumter County.
When the dark-colored car pulled off the road on C.R. 466A, just west of the Lake County line, the pickups were parked on the side of the road, Caruthers said.
A "young white male" from one of the trucks got out and started firing a weapon at Lovett's car, he said. Caruthers said it was not known if the weapon was a handgun or rifle. Lovett said "it was bigger than a handgun."
"There were three shots fired," Caruthers said. "One killed the little girl. She was struck in the head. Another hit the grandmother. She had a finger dismembered. And the third hit the rear taillight on the Escort."
Father seeks help at store
After the shooting, Lovett drove to a nearby Handy Way store in Fruitland Park, where the clerk called Lake County deputy sheriffs and emergency medical workers.
Lovett cut and scratched his arms after he went "a little crazy" at the convenience store and broke the glass on the front door, the clerk said. She refused to give her name.
"He was screaming and yelling about someone killing his daughter," she said. "I don't blame him."
The Lovetts moved to Leesburg about three years ago when Tyrone Lovett was offered a teaching position. He has since taken a job as an assistant manager of an Eckerd drugstore in Ocala, he said.
Ottawa Lovett, 27, said she is a corrections officer at Lake Correctional Institution near Clermont.
Trip to Panhandle
Early Saturday, Tyrone Lovett and his daughter drove to Jackson County in the Panhandle to pick up Vickson in Marianna.
"I was coming down to be her nanny," Vickson said, her right arm in a sling and her right hand wrapped in gauze. "I was going to take care of my grandbaby."
Caruthers said investigators aren't sure how many suspects are involved in the shooting or why the pickups were waiting on the side of the road.
Lovett, interviewed briefly at his home Sunday night, said he saw at least four men. He gave no more details about the chase and the shooting.
Sitting on the sofa, clutching a picture of his daughter, the distraught father's mumbled responses were barely audible.
"I've already talked to the police," he said between nearly inaudible sobs. "I don't want to say anything else."
Most of the investigation is based on what Tyrone Lovett told detectives, Caruthers said.
"There was only one shooter," Caruthers said. "But we don't know how many people were involved. There was at least one person in the Camaro or Firebird and at least one in each truck."
Caruthers said physical evidence at the scene included truck tire tracks.
"But mostly, we have to go on what he tells us," Caruthers said. "We're hoping someone who saw something will come forward."
Treadway Principal Don Campbell said the staff was shaken by Marishka's death. He said she was "full of energy" and used to hug him whenever he walked into her classroom.
"She was a very sweet little girl," Campbell said. "She comes from a very nice family, a very loving family."
Campbell said he plans to meet with the school counselor and Marishka's teacher today to decide whether the children will need grief counseling.
"Our hearts go out for the family," Campbell said.
Anyone with information on the chase or the shooting is asked to call the Sumter County Sheriff's Office at 352-793-0222 and ask for the Detective Division or call Crimeline at 1-800-423-8477.
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