A kid I went to undergrad with (I didn’t know him personally) died a few days ago in the streets of Portland. He was walking with a female co-worker and three guys started harassing her on the street. He stepped up to defend her, which is wonderful, and was punched once in the face by one of the guys. The guys took off and thought nothing of it. The boy hit his head on the bricks of Congress street and started hemorrhaging blood. By the time the paramedics got there he had lost too much blood and died.
The boy who punched him went to a bar after, even though he was only 20, and continued partying. He had no idea what he had done. He fled from the police home for a day, but told his brother (who contacted the police) that he wasn’t running, he was trying to contact a lawyer. He had no idea what he had done.
He’s 20 years old, and wil be charged with manslaughter. That carries up to 40 years in prison.
He killed someone, but I can’t fully feel that he deserves 40 years in prison for something that could’ve gone completely differently. Yet, the community around my college is broken up about it, and it’s obviously completely tragic. Yet, when I saw the pictures of this 20 year old boy crying at his inquest my heart broke a little for him too.
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