"I don't see myself as a murderer."
Crack Dealer Fires 30 Bullets Into Trick Or Treaters
By: John Brown's Bones
SUMPTER, SOUTH CAROLINA - On Halloween night of 2008, Quentin Patrick was ready for war. The probelm was he didn't know his fight would be with a group of unarmed childen. That night, a 12-year-old boy named Tony "T.J." Darrisaw was returning home from a Halloween party with his dad and brothers when they decided to do some trick-or-treating to end the night.
The Darrisaw family made the mistake of stopping at one last home for Halloween - the home of Quentin Patrick. Patrick, a paranoid crack dealer, had gone completely haywire after being shot in a robbery ten months prior by rival drug thugs who wanted his crack and his money and nearly took his life in the process.
At 8:30 PM, Quentin Patrick's porch light was on. The Darrisaws assumed he was passing out candy. The three boys wearing Halloween masks, which apparently freaked out Patrick's crack addict girlfriend inside, stood at Patrick's front door and knocked. Patrick's girlfriend looked out the window and screamed. She frantically told Patrick that there were three large men in masks with a rope outside the door.
Though T.J. was a big kid, it's difficult to mistake a 12-year-old, a 9-year-old and his even younger kid brother in Halloween costumes for masked gunmen. A combination of bad judgement, paranoid delusions and crack cocaine fueled anxiety led Patrick to believe it was time for war.
Patrick grabbed his AK-47, which had been modified to fully automatic. He unloaded the entire magazine, 30 bullets in all, right into the front of the house. T.J, who was at the front of the group of boys was shot 11 times. His father and his 9-year-old brother were shot twice with assault rifle fire but survived. The third brother was not hit. T.J., whose big body shielded his brothers and father, fell mortally wounded. The 12-year-old boy died at the hospital, local Coroner Verna Moore said.
When police arrived, Quentin Patrick realizing that he'd made a mistake, walked out of the house with his hands up. In the house detectives found $7,500, four ounces of cocaine, and all the ingredients that are required to turn it into crack. Patrick was charged with Murder, dealing Crack Cocaine, Attempted Murder, and illegal Possession of a Firearm, the murder weapon, by a convicted felon due to his long criminal history involving crack and guns.
In a shocking twist during sentencing, U.S. District Judge Matthew Perry agreed with defense lawyers that Patrick didn't intend to kill 12-year-old T.J. Darrisaw by firing 30 rounds from an automatic weapon through a door into his body, unprovoked.
On December 14th 2009, convicted crack dealer and incidental child murderer Quentin Patrick was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter instead of murder. Patrick, telling the judge "I don't see myself as a murderer." was sentenced to 16 years in prison, just months above the minimum sentencing guidelines. He still faces charges in state court that could result in a life sentence, which the victim's family asked for during the proceedings.
"We'll be there every day," Darrisaw family friend Daphne Grinnell said of a possible state trial. "We know he deserves to be in jail the rest of his life."
References:
WLTX Channel 19, Man Recieves 16-Year Sentence
True Crime Report, Paranoid Crack Dealer Opens Fire
By: John Brown's Bones
SUMPTER, SOUTH CAROLINA - On Halloween night of 2008, Quentin Patrick was ready for war. The probelm was he didn't know his fight would be with a group of unarmed childen. That night, a 12-year-old boy named Tony "T.J." Darrisaw was returning home from a Halloween party with his dad and brothers when they decided to do some trick-or-treating to end the night. The Darrisaw family made the mistake of stopping at one last home for Halloween - the home of Quentin Patrick. Patrick, a paranoid crack dealer, had gone completely haywire after being shot in a robbery ten months prior by rival drug thugs who wanted his crack and his money and nearly took his life in the process.
At 8:30 PM, Quentin Patrick's porch light was on. The Darrisaws assumed he was passing out candy. The three boys wearing Halloween masks, which apparently freaked out Patrick's crack addict girlfriend inside, stood at Patrick's front door and knocked. Patrick's girlfriend looked out the window and screamed. She frantically told Patrick that there were three large men in masks with a rope outside the door.
Though T.J. was a big kid, it's difficult to mistake a 12-year-old, a 9-year-old and his even younger kid brother in Halloween costumes for masked gunmen. A combination of bad judgement, paranoid delusions and crack cocaine fueled anxiety led Patrick to believe it was time for war.
Patrick grabbed his AK-47, which had been modified to fully automatic. He unloaded the entire magazine, 30 bullets in all, right into the front of the house. T.J, who was at the front of the group of boys was shot 11 times. His father and his 9-year-old brother were shot twice with assault rifle fire but survived. The third brother was not hit. T.J., whose big body shielded his brothers and father, fell mortally wounded. The 12-year-old boy died at the hospital, local Coroner Verna Moore said.When police arrived, Quentin Patrick realizing that he'd made a mistake, walked out of the house with his hands up. In the house detectives found $7,500, four ounces of cocaine, and all the ingredients that are required to turn it into crack. Patrick was charged with Murder, dealing Crack Cocaine, Attempted Murder, and illegal Possession of a Firearm, the murder weapon, by a convicted felon due to his long criminal history involving crack and guns.
In a shocking twist during sentencing, U.S. District Judge Matthew Perry agreed with defense lawyers that Patrick didn't intend to kill 12-year-old T.J. Darrisaw by firing 30 rounds from an automatic weapon through a door into his body, unprovoked.
On December 14th 2009, convicted crack dealer and incidental child murderer Quentin Patrick was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter instead of murder. Patrick, telling the judge "I don't see myself as a murderer." was sentenced to 16 years in prison, just months above the minimum sentencing guidelines. He still faces charges in state court that could result in a life sentence, which the victim's family asked for during the proceedings.
"We'll be there every day," Darrisaw family friend Daphne Grinnell said of a possible state trial. "We know he deserves to be in jail the rest of his life."
References:
WLTX Channel 19, Man Recieves 16-Year Sentence
True Crime Report, Paranoid Crack Dealer Opens Fire
Comments