Camp Lejeune Marine Spent Mother's Day Grieving For Mom, Savannah's 22 Homicide Victim of 2016

Family, neighbors mourn loss of Savannah mother of 2 shot, killed on Ash Street
Savannah Morning News
Will Peebles
May 8, 2016

Tyler Schmidt traveled from Camp Lejeune, N.C., to Savannah on Sunday. As an active-duty Marine, Schmidt’s work schedule would have prevented him from having time to visit Savannah for Mother’s Day, but he was granted leave given the grave circumstances.

Kathy Henry and her son Tyler Schmidt fish from a boat in coastal Savannah.

(Photo courtesy Richard Schmidt)

Sunday was a solemn Mother’s Day for Tyler Schmidt, the son of a 43-year-old Savannah woman who was found shot and lying in the street Saturday night — the latest victim of gun violence in the city.

“She’s a loving person,” said Tyler’s father, Richard Schmidt, about his ex-wife, Kathy Henry. Police found Henry about 8:45 p.m. on Ash Street, according to Eunicia Baker, police spokeswoman, only a few blocks from her father’s home.

Henry was taken to Memorial University Medical Center, where she died, Baker said.

“She’s never hurt anyone intentionally,” Richard Schmidt said. “If it was over money, she would’ve given them money. She would’ve given them anything they asked for. We’re still numb and in shock that something like this could happen.”

Henry’s death is the 22nd homicide in Savannah in 2016 — nearly twice the number of killings recorded by this time last year. She was shot and killed on the same day of the funeral of Hannah Brown, a mother of five, who died April 28.
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Acts of Love Outnumber Acts of Hate

The State of Hate in America on the Huffington Post by Brian Levin covers the statistics of hate crimes in the US. This followed the hate crime against members of the AME Church bible study group murdered after being "too nice" to the shooter so filled with hate he was still determined to kill them.

Levin writes,

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) collects data on crimes reported to police, but participation and accuracy varies significantly by jurisdiction. In 2013, the latest available year, the FBI enumerated 5,933 hate crime incidents and five hate crime homicides in the United States through the National Incident Based Reporting System. This number represents a significant decline in the number of hate crimes over the last 15 years.

There have been and will continue to be more hate crimes simply because the courageous stand for loving others while the perpetrators stand for themselves.

Many seem to be more shocked by the response following this unthinkable act but they forget we are all born to love.

The hater was captured because someone was praying for the victims and their families.

Police got a tip from Debbie Dills, who reportedly spotted Roof on her way into work. She followed him for 35 miles, the Shelby Star reported.

“I had been praying for those people on my way to work,” Dills told the newspaper about victims of the church shooting. “I was in the right place at the right time.”

The church itself was a victim of hate.

Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church has been a presence in Charleston since 1816, when African-American members of Charleston’s Methodist Episcopal Church formed their own congregation after a dispute over burial grounds. Known as “Mother Emanuel,” it’s been the headquarters for civil rights activity over the decades.

It was burned to the ground at one point but was rebuilt.

Throughout its history, it overcame obstacle after obstacle — destroyed by an earthquake, banned by the state. But its church members persevered, making it the largest African-American church in terms of seating space in Charleston today.

Some are taught to hate. Some are just so consumed with finding others to blame for their own misery they have to blame someone else and that way, they are not forced to take a good hard look at themselves.

“There is no greater coward than a criminal who enters a house of God and slaughters innocent people engaged in the study of scripture,” Cornell William Brooks said.

The church started because they responded to being mistreated with love and hope. While the rest of the country seems stunned by their support and compassion for each other, they are ignoring the obvious. People acting out of love always outnumbers those acting out of hate.

32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

35 Jesus wept.

36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” John 11

While the Sanhedrin wanted Jesus dead because they hated Him, what He said was pure love.
Trial and Death of Jesus

Like a terminally ill patient, Jesus knows that death is around the corner. God has mapped out a path and written a ticket reading "End of Earthly Life." Our mortality is a frightening thing. Jesus faces it by doing what he always did: he took his concerns to God in prayer. While warning the disciples throughout this scene of the danger of temptation, Jesus walks into his valley of the shadow of death through the heavenly courts of God's presence. Unlike some who face death, he is not angry; nor is he stoic. He is not withdrawn, he is not bereft of hope. He simply is honest with God: "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me." If there is any way I can avoid experiencing your cup of wrath for others, he prays, then remove it. (on cup as wrath, Ps 11:6; 75:7-8; Is 51:17, 19, 22; Jer 25:15-16; 49:12; 51:57; Ezek 23:31-34).
Like many who face death, Jesus would like to avoid dying now. If he were considering only his personal preference, he would rather not experience the pain of mortality and the horror of paying for sin.

Army Ranger killed in parachute accident only back a month from Afghanistan

Christopher P. Dona Dead: Army Identifies Massachusetts Ranger Killed During Parachute Training
Huffington Post
AP
06/15/13

ATLANTA — The U.S. Army Ranger killed in an apparent parachuting mishap was a 21-year-old veteran from Massachusetts who recently returned from Afghanistan, officials said Saturday.

Pfc. Christopher P. Dona was found dead Thursday with parachute cords and canvas straps from a harness wrapped around his neck after a routine training jump at Fort Stewart in southeast Georgia. It was not immediately clear what caused the fatality. Army authorities are investigating the incident.

An Army spokesman earlier said Dona's parachute seemed to work normally during the jump. When he landed, wind filled the parachute's canopy, dragging Dona about 350 feet along the ground. Dona was unconscious by the time fellow soldiers reached him.

Dona served in the 1st Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment based at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah. He was a combat veteran who returned last month from his first deployment to Afghanistan.
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Female Army soldier involved in domestic incident

Police: Army soldier involved in domestic incident

Associated Press
08/24/10 4:30 PM PDT SAVANNAH, GA. — Savannah police say an Army soldier is suspected in a shooting incident that left her husband seriously injured Tuesday.

Savannah-Chatham police have not identified the woman or the man. They say it happened around 11:30 a.m. at a Windsor Forest home.

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: Army soldier involved in domestic incident

UPDATE August 26, 2010
Soldier’s husband ‘primary aggressor’ in domestic shooting
The husband of a 3rd Infantry Division soldier was determined to be the primary aggressor in a domestic shooting Tuesday on Savannah's Southside, confirmed Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department Information Officer Gena Moore. The soldier, Spc. Marlena McLaughlin, 24, is attached to an aviation brigade at Hunter Army Airfield, said Fort Stewart media chief Kevin Larson. McLaughlin's home of record is Wake Forest, N.C, Larson said.

"Officers found 26-year-old Charlie McLaughlin lying in the front yard of the residence suffering from a gunshot wound. His wife, Marlena McLaughlin, was across the street. She had run there to get help after an argument had escalated into violence. She told officers she had shot her husband after he had beaten her severely," read a SCMPD release.
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http://www.coastalcourier.com/news/article/23950/

PIPO Missions: Limbs and Braces to Mexico

PIPO Missions: Limbs and Braces to Mexico

'How do I say no' to the limbless?
Story Highlights
David Puckett's nonprofit provides free artificial limbs, braces and care

Since November 2000 the organization has helped hundreds in southeastern Mexico

Puckett's organization crafts the braces and artificial limbs from recycled ones



Motozintla, MEXICO (CNN) -- "My life was sad before because I had to crawl on the ground," recalls Caesar Morales, a 24-year-old father in Mexico who, until recently, had only one limb and couldn't walk.

But today, thanks to David Puckett and his U.S.-based nonprofit, Morales has new prosthetic legs. Now, he's not only able to walk, but his newfound independence has made it possible for him to move to another town where he could find work.

"He lifted me up to where I am today," Morales says.

Morales isn't the only person in southeastern Mexico who credits Puckett with changing his life. Since November 2000, the certified, licensed prosthetist/orthotist from Savannah, Georgia, has been providing artificial limbs, orthopedic braces and ongoing care to hundreds in need in the communities of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and Chiapas -- free of charge.

"When someone loses a limb they immediately know what they've lost," says Puckett, 34. "The goal is to restore the healthy self image again so that that person can see themselves whole."

Puckett first connected with the Yucatan people while volunteering on a mission there as a teenager. Struck by the overwhelming poverty and the physical challenges he saw people facing in the rural communities, Puckett vowed to return and make a difference there.
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/08/22/heroes.puckett/index.html