Man Accused Of Killing 15-Year-Old Turns Himself In

[jbm32206]

It made me sick, not only because a young girl was killed, for apparently no reason...but when I watched the video on tv, there's the killers family saying how "it's not like him" "that he's a nice guy" blah, blah, blah! If this guy was such a nice guy, then why the hell was he carrying a gun and why did he shoot someone for no reason? :NO!: Yeah, sounds like a real nice guy to me!

One day after a 15-year-old was shot and killed as she sat on the coach in a friend's northwest Jacksonville apartment, police announced the man suspected in the shooting has turned himself in. Johnny Clint Lewis, 21, was arrested and charged with murder in the shooting death of 15-year-old Quamiee Russ, of White Springs, Fla.


The shooting took place just before 10 p.m. Saturday at the Hilltop Village Apartments in the 1600 block of West 45th Street. Police said Lewis was in his girlfriend's apartment along with Russ, who was friends with Lewis's girlfriend, and two other women when the 15-year-old was shot in the head.

"There was absolutely no exchange of words, no argument or anything of that nature.

Apparently, he had been in a back bedroom with the lease holder and he walked out and within seconds the lease holder heard a gunshot. This was also verified by the other two witnesses that were actually in the living room with the victim. He just shot her," said Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Lt. Pat Ivey.


Police called the slaying unprovoked. "She was just sitting on the couch and she was shot. Witnesses they advised that there was no exchange of words or argument between Quamiee and the suspect, 21-year-old Johnny Lewis," Ivey said.


According to investigators, Lewis and Russ did not have much of a relationship and it's not clear why Lewis shot the girl. Police told Channel 4 they believe Lewis and his girlfriend may have been discussing something about money in the back room of the apartment, but they did not elaborate on the discussion.


Russ had been living in Jacksonville off and on for the past year, according to police. "It's sad. It's really sad," said Russ's cousin, Destiny. "She was a good person. Living a normal child life, I guess. She was -- I just can't talk about it. I'm going to break down." Lewis was arrested on murder charges Sunday and was being held without bond.
http://www.news4jax.com/news/14567239/detail.html

[spidey]

Many of these folks do not show their real selves to their families...or else their families are inclined to either ignore or turn a blind eye toward their behavior.

[jbm32206]

These families, I have no doubt know that this guy isn't a law abiding fellow. I'm sorry, but I just don't buy that...and am sick of that kind of crap that the relatives say when their family member did something horrible like murder someone.

[Claude91098]

Many of these folks do not show their real selves to their families...or else their families are inclined to either ignore or turn a blind eye toward their behavior.

They AGREE with the reason he was shooting in the first place! THAT'S why they don't give a crap and say "he's such a nice guy"...yeah...right...and rattlesnakes make great pets for 3 year olds too!

This is a PRIME EXAMPLE of an "attitude" in the community. It is one of the greatest reasons the "don't snitch" crap keeps circulating!

[Skot David Wilson]

This is what I'm talking about. How well educated are they? Was the guy a working man? What grade level does he read at?
This is important for many reasons.
They live in crime infested areas, have little hope of escaping it, and drugs are all around.
We take dividens from Comcast stocks as "gansta" rap videos and video games (getting dividens from Sony?) that glamorize violence.
Ever watch a kid play "Grand Theft Auto"?
My son calls it a stupid, pointless game and doesn't understand why people play it.
But most of his peers have video games and play crap like that. It is second nature, after hours and hours of play, to use a controler or a gun, and blow someone away for no reason.
We train our fighter pilots in simulators for hours on end so they can shoot down an enemy without thinking.
Ever think these games and television shows have made it just too easy to just act out killing someone?
There are loads of factors at play in something as stupid as this, senseless as this.
In a different world that guy could have been a great auto-body man, or a writer, or a cook, but in the world we have made as ONE society he is a murderer.
Why?
The sadness isn't as much the loss of a 15 year old girl, by the way I'd like to know what she was doing there and not at home....
but in that this will play out somewhere else, today likely,
again and again,
until we decide to take back our country.
Don't view this guys actions from your or my morality.
Don't judge him based on our shared version of right and wrong, because he doesn't understand that version, and I am as outraged as you, and think he needs to go away for a while, unless he has a proven history of violence and no remorse, in which case he dies.
You must want to understand what brought one moment after 21 years of life to the point where he had a gun and used it.
It amazes me that most of the NRA types are the first to want the death pentalty when this crap happens. Take the guns away and the simplicity of murder goes away to a degree.
Take away the killing games like Grand Theft Auto and the rap videos and lyrics that promote abuse of women, use of drugs. killing of cops, and things might change.
You can't release the brake and blame the car for rolling downhill.
You just have to stop the car and step on the brakes a little.

[jbm32206]

Don't view this guys actions from your or my morality.
Sorry, but that's crap....that's one of the problems, is no morals...We need to stop making excuses for these people who are cold-blooded killers. It doesn't matter what grade level he reads at, or for that much, what grade he last attended. It boils down to a few factors....one: poor parenting, two: lack of real discipline at home and school, and constantly making excuses for them!

[Skot David Wilson]

I know we don't see it the same way, but it's a reason, not an excuse. I think we all share in the guilt just a little because we allow factors that make it so easy for murder to happen.
It takes a strong, healthy community to stop crime of this kind at the levels we see it at.
Our society is sick...
The proof is the murder rate.
The reasons are many.
But when we allow businesses like pawn shops, bail bondsmen, and quick mart stores that sell crack supplies to flourish, and then have 40% of our kids not graduating, what the hell do you think the result will be?
There is no excuse for bad parenting, no excuse for this guy getting up and just shooting that girl.
Why are these guns on the street?
Why do I see cops rolling by crack whores as they walk the street?
Why can people sit out on street corners and sell drugs like at a fast food pick-up window?
Why can a city make money off of crime?
Do you think all the stuff at pawn shops gets there legally?
Stop the drug trade, and educate the kids.
That's the starting point.
Getting rid of violent games and so much television violence might help a little, too!
What can we say about ourselves when we allowed things to get this bad?
Crime is the result of our own stupidity and general lack of concern and action for so many years.

[jbm32206]

I know we don't see it the same way, but it's a reason, not an excuse. I think we all share in the guilt just a little because we allow factors that make it so easy for murder to happen.
I can assure you, I feel no guilt what so ever, nor am I willing to accept any blame. These people have the same opportunities for an education, they have all kinds of programs designed to help...but are often to no avail...in fact, there's more offered to help the lower income than others who are actually out there working an honest job and struggle from pay to paycheck...but these scum bags know that there's better money in selling drugs, stealing what others worked hard to buy and our court system's over flowing with the scum bags.

The guns are on the streets because money from drugs, etc can afford to buy them! I can't answer as to why cops roll past crack whores, although I know that they can't arrest them just for being there...unless they see a drug deal take place. They could stop and talk to them, but would have to justify any kind of search more than a safety pat down, in order to find what illegal stuff they have on them.

One main reason why people get away with selling drugs on corners...people don't report it...you know, don't snitch! That's a major part of why our society's so sick, people not wanting to get involved....and that goes into another huge discussion...the many reasons behind that.

[Claude91098]

I don't give a crap if they can read or write, if they are circumcised or not, or if their mommies didn't hug em' enough when they were babies....they KNOW right from WRONG and they CHOOSE WRONG! And "we" didn't "allow" anything in their lives to happen or not happen....since when is the government, or society in general, "responsible" for everyone else's "upbringing"? Easy answer:
They AREN'T!

End of discussion.

[jbm32206]

Yeah, this paints a pretty picture of this 'nice' guy..."he always playing with the gun"

http://www.news4jax.com/news/14586788/detail.html

Two women, who were in a northwest Jacksonville apartment when a 15-year-old was shot and killed for no apparent reason, talked with Channel 4 about exactly what happened.

Police said 15-year-old Quamiee Russ was just hanging out with friends at the Hilltop Village Apartments when 21-year-old Johnny Lewis took out a gun and shot her in the head. "I just want to go back to that day. There are a lot of things I could do different," said witness Timeka Hayward.

She said last Saturday she was in her apartment when her boyfriend, Lewis, left the bedroom and had a gun. Hayward said she heard the shooting and then saw her friend Russ was dead. Russ was known as Ashley to her friends.

"I just heard the gunshot and I came out of my room to my best friend screaming, telling me that Ashley was dead I just shook Ashley trying to get her to wake up but she didn't wake up. I panicked and freaked and I called police," Hayward said.

Another witnesses, Shenna O'Neil, said she was sitting right next to Russ before she was shot. "He had the gun in his hand when he walked out the room. We did not think nothing of it because he was always playing with the gun. He walked out of the room and did not say nothing. He went like this (pointing her finger to her head) and was playing with the safety. And I don't know if he meant to kill her and it went, 'pow' and her head went to the side and he looked at me with shock, like 'Did I just kill her or what?'" O'Neil said.

So far Lewis has not made any statements, but the two young women who were in the apartment told Channel 4 they did not believe he intended to kill their friend. Both women said here was no fighting or loud words, just the gunshot. "I can't say intentionally that he tried to kill her. I hope and I wish he didn't try to kill her, but I keep him in my prayers. That is all I can do," O'Neil said. "There is nothing I can do to bring her back, so I just pray and ask God to be with her."

Police said Lewis left the apartment the night of the fatal shooting and turned himself in the next day. Lewis is charged with murder and remains in jail without bond.

[Skot David Wilson]

I agree that people don't report things that should, but there are levels of city service that are given to "nice" neighborhoods that aren't given to others. Make a call about someone breaking into a home on the northside and one in Ortega. Watch the response times.
And we DO have a responsibility to look out for each other. It's part of the Social Contract that this country was founded upon. I'm sorry, but if you see a neighbor's house being broken into and don't call the cops, then YOU are responsible for what gets stolen. If you see an accident with someone hurt and don't stop, YOU caused the accident.
Each of us have a responsibility to make our society better. It has become too easy to turn away and be selfish in modern times.
If we should "snitch", then we should also help others in need. It goes with everything that being civilized means.
Our society needs solutions to crime, and education makes for better citizens, thus reducing crime. It is real easy to just write people off as worthless and damn them, but I think we could do better.
Some people make the only choice they know, which at times are really bad ones.
I was at council tonight. Didn't run across any posters in here that I know of. There were some important issues being discussed. We pay taxes to provide an education to everyone, it is a basic right, a free education paid for by taxes. It is a tool that enhances humanity and quality of life. Most criminals are lacking an education. Think maybe that is a factor in why they choose crime?
So, if I enhance education, I reduce crime, and if I don't, then am I not responsible for higher crime levels?
Why should I rely upon government to do that, and when they are failing at it, shouldn't I step in and take responsibility and fight to correct that?
It is all tied together.
And to someone educated and aware, yeah, they are completely responsible for themselves... but when you have people who have been retarded by their passage through a system that is supposed to give them the skills to function as productive members of society, aware of their place in it, and they don't.....
there is an aspect of law called "culpability"...
some of these people just don't know what is even legal, right or wrong.
Our system of law says they have to understand it, that what they do is wrong....
Part of me totally agrees with you, throw the garbage away.... but the best part of me knows that it didn't come to be like this for no reason, and that things need to change.
My wild idea is to follow the example of Escape From New York. Get a big island and throw them all there, away from us, at least the worst of them.
But damn it people, we helped make this mess.
If there's an oil spill on the high seas, you use a car and you're partly responsible...
You use lights, you share the blame for Three Mile Island...
And what dumb foo-cares put Bush in office?
Over ten years in Jax your chance of getting dead from murder come out to less than 1 in a 1,000.
That sucks ass.
We can do better.

[Claude91098]

That's funny....I can't find the mention of a "social contract" in the Federalist papers nor the Constitution...Hummmmmmmm....could this be some "interpretive view" of what all the afore mentioned says?

I believe in being a "good neighbor" and I am. I do NOT believe that it is my responsibility, duty or anyother assignment of ME to try and run my neighbor's life. I help when it is needed or asked for. I leave when told to do so. I offer advice when solicited. I ensure MY life is conducted in such a way that others would take it as an example.

Beyond that, the world is on it's own.

If "government" is to be the end all, do all for everyone, then we may as well revoke the Constituion and become a full fledged communist/socialist country so that all the "stressful decisions" of life can be lifted from the shoulders and minds of our citizenry! (NOT!!!)

[jbm32206]

Sorry Skot, but I don't buy into that and no matter what you say, you're not going to place the blame back upon the decent people, for what these scum bags do.

Yes, we pay taxes and that enables absolutely everyone the opportunity to receive an education. Plus, the majority of minorities are able to get grants to attend college, without cost to them...which is a hell of a lot more than I got! So a lack of education is NO EXCUSE, everyone, including the disabled are entitled to an education, it's whether or not they go, opt to learn and move onto college!

I am not my brother's keeper and I am not responsible for the poor choices they make. We're taught right from wrong, and these scum bags know it! They make a conscience choice to do wrong. So don't dare suggest that they're criminals because the rest of us aren't doing more and more.

As for looking out for one another, that comes down to common decency. I happen to be a very good neighbor and will pick up the phone to report a crime. Just as I'll stop if I see someone injured or appears lost...and it's because I'm a caring person that was raised with good moral values. It's not because of any social contract. Again, it comes down to what's right and what's wrong...and making good choices.

And I'm sorry, but there are people that aren't worth saving....cold hearted? Might be, but that's how it is...and they've made their own choices. It just ticks me off that they have to exist in my world, because they're out there killing innocent people, they're stealing from the honest, hard working citizens, etc. I have no time and no sympathy for these bottom dwellers of life...and I'll be damned if anyone's going to suggest that they're my responsibility!