One of the saddest stories to happen during the Holiday week comes out of Arizona where a man reportedly killed an innocent teenager for listening to Rap/Hip-Hop at a Peoria gas stations. According to local authorities, 27 year old Michael Adams stabbed 17 year old, Elijah Al-Amin outside of a Circle K Store.
The 17 year old was then taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Michael Adams was promptly arrested and is currently locked up being held on a One Million Dollar bail.
Now while we may all know how this goes, the killers lawyer says that he is mentally ill and should not have been released from his previous arrests (which have all been against strangers).
The statement from his Lawyer is as follows:
"They released him to the streets with no medication, no meds, with no way to care for himself. This is a failing of the Department of Corrections. This is easily foreseeable and that is an issue," attorney Jacie Cotterell said. "It's too easy as a society to shake our head and say well, they committed a crime, it's too bad, we have jails for that when really, what they need is treatment. They need a bed instead of a cell."
In response to his lawyers claims Elijah's mother had this to say: "There's no excuse for this, there's not at all, there's no excuse. I don't care that somebody's hiding behind mental illness, there's no excuse. I'm so numb and hurt to the core of my soul, but I have to stay focused because I know that's what he would want and to make sure justice is served for him."
RIP Elijah Al-Amin, our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.