Kansas Shoppers Step Over Dying Woman 
By ROXANA HEGEMAN,AP
Posted: 2007-07-04 09:37:01
Filed Under: Crime News, Nation
WICHITA, Kan. (July 4) - As stabbing victim LaShanda Calloway lay
dying on the floor of a convenience store, five shoppers, including
one who stopped to take a picture of her with a cell phone, stepped
over the woman, police said.
The June 23 situation, captured on the store's surveillance video,
got scant news coverage until a columnist for The Wichita Eagle
disclosed the existence of the video and its contents
Tuesday.
Police have refused to release the video, saying it is part of
their investigation.
"It was tragic to watch," police spokesman Gordon Bassham said
Tuesday. "The fact that people were more interested in taking a
picture with a cell phone and shopping for snacks rather than
helping this innocent young woman is, frankly, revolting."
The woman was stabbed during an altercation that was not part of a
robbery, Bassham said. It took about two minutes for someone to
call 911, he said.
Calloway, 27, died later at a hospital.
Two suspects have been arrested. A 19-year-old woman was charged
with first-degree murder. Another suspect who turned himself in had
not been charged as of Tuesday, the Sedgwick County prosecutor's
office said.
The district attorney's office will have to decide whether any of
the shoppers could be charged, Bassham said.
It was uncertain what law, if any, would be applicable. A state
statute for failure to render aid refers only to victims of a car
accident.
Eagle columnist Mark McCormick told The Associated Press he learned
about the video when he called Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams
to inquire about a phone call he had received from a reader
complaining about a Police Department policy that requires
emergency medical personnel to wait until police secure a crime
scene before rendering aid. McCormick said Williams then unloaded
on him about the shoppers in the stabbing case.
"This is just appalling," Williams told the newspaper. "I could
continue shopping and not render aid and then take time out to take
a picture? That's crazy. What happened to our respect for
life?"
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2007-07-04 05:29:17
