It is sad that this has happened. And obviously this teen was mixed up with problems long ago within himself that sadly no one close to him either cared enough about him to lead him, befriend him long ago.
While we do not personally know either the family of the victim nor the 18 year old gunman, we grieve personally not only because the City of Ponchatoula is small enough that I think it is just about impossible to live here & have never at least greeted with a smile in passing along Downtown sidewalks or saying "Good morning" or exchange a cordial smile in grocery store with every member in this community at sometime or other.
Combine this that that this crime as many crimes was at least in part motivated or accelerated through Facebook before it was committed...with the fact my husband, The Carpenters Friend, who yearns to teach non-violent inmates Vocational Carpentry, has often been mis-represented...many erroneously think that we seek to rehabilitate hardened criminals...
This is false.
My husband will never go into classrooms with violent criminals such as this young teenager.
Had William met & known the family many years ago possibly if he had the same opportunity he had once in Connecticut when a church member's son after a break up with a girl friend or maybe she never would go out with him at all...
The teen like one of my brothers when he was turned down the first time he ever asked a girl for a date desired to kill himself
William knowing the boys father & entire family offered the teenage boy a job for at the time William owned a company that had enough business that he could take on a new employee.
William by taking personal interest in this teen over 3 decades ago...taking him to breakfast before work each day and not reading the paper while at the table but engaging in conversation letting him know that his interests, his goals and well being were and are important to him...
This young boy made a drastic turn in his outlook on life..
He opened up to my husband who was not my husband then...going back years in Williams memory before we met.
William simply paying him to sweep the wood shop daily after school & teaching him carpentry and giving him direction...put hope in him.
And this family was saved from being broken.
I cannot say what this youth's life was like, what caused his inner problems that this became the sad out come.
But this opens & proves that sadly most families today have at least one member who is out of touch out of sinc with the rest of the family who feels "They are not really part of the family" for whatever reason they feel inferior they do.
And it is these who are susceptible to fall into drugs and even tougher gangs and troubles.
Let us not only be prayerful for these wounded families here in Ponchatoula, but let us be vigilant and notice when one person especially youth may not be getting the attention he or she needs...and let us be the one who tries to be a friend to take interest.
God will always reward us...God will always make us more productive to multiply our time...God will never allow our own family to suffer when we invite someone else's lost child to join our own children & ourselves...
God always blesses the gesture of caring hearts...Let us care for our neighbors with acts of kindness.
Mr & Mrs William Gustavson
PO BOX 1144
Ponchatoula, LA 70454
Date: Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 9:34 AM
Subject: Suspect in Ponchatoula death caught, wounded - FOX 8 WVUE New Orleans News, Weather, Sports
Subject: Suspect in Ponchatoula death caught, wounded - FOX 8 WVUE New Orleans News, Weather, Sports
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