Que's-mail attracts national attention
>
>
>Frustration over friend's death leads to e-mail that has circled the globe
>and made story national news
>
>
>Columba (Ga.) Ledger-Enquirer
>
>One man's voice just got a whole lot louder.
>
>Wednesday's edition of CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" featured the Kenneth Walker
>shooting death. And that's just what Will Rembert of Midland, Ga., wanted --
>his friend's death to become national news.
>
>"It's really done the whole nation a disservice that more folks don't know
>about Kenny's death," Rembert said.
>
>He and another friend of Walker got together, wrote an e-mail and hit the
>send button. That e-mail has since circled the globe.
>
>Amy Shniderman, a producer for the Dobbs program, said they were alerted to
>the Walker shooting from a viewer e-mail on Tuesday.
>
>"It's a fascinating story, and we were amazed that it hasn't gotten more
>media attention," Shniderman said. "The e-mail just got us into it."
>
>Walker was fatally shot Dec. 10 by a Muscogee County Sheriff's deputy during
>the stop of a vehicle suspected of carrying armed drug traffickers from Miami.
>Walker and three other local men were pulled from the GMC Yukon on Interstate
>185. No drugs or weapons were found.
>
>After Walker's funeral, Rembert spoke with Daryl Blackmon of Atlanta of the
>heavy feelings they had about the situation. Blackmon, like Rembert, belonged
>to Omega Psi Phi, Walker's fraternity.
>
>"Kenny was a very good guy," Blackmon said. "You have a lot of people who get
>into foolish things, but Kenny was not one of those guys who did haphazard
>things in life."
>
>Rembert and Blackmon decided to write down what they were feeling. Rembert
>e-mailed what he had to Blackmon. Blackmon then wrote an introduction to the
>e-mail and forwarded it to his fraternity's national office, where it was placed
>on its Web site.
>
>The e-mail, titled "Innocent Man Murdered," tells the story of Walker's death
>from the men's perspectives. It also asks people who read the e-mail to
>forward it to more people and media outlets.
>
>"The e-mail spread like an amoeba," Blackmon said.
>
>Having attached their contact information at the bottom of the e-mail,
>Blackmon said that he receives about a dozen calls a day. Rembert has fielded calls
>from California, Texas, Philadelphia and New York.
>
>The questions he receives include the following: What's being done about it?
>Is the local NAACP involved? Are there any marches or demonstrations to
>attend? Has the sheriff's deputy been charged? Where does the investigation stand?
>
>"They say they are outraged and will forward it on to more and more people,"
>Rembert said. "It's just an outpouring of questions and people wondering
>what's going to be done."
>
>Blackmon has received calls from Europe and the Caribbean. At the University
>of Notre Dame, a graduate student who had to do a project on racial profiling
>also called.
>
>Bessie Downing, a Washington, D.C.-area resident, received the e-mail on Feb.
>4 from an unknown person. She was so "outraged" that she wrote a letter about
>the incident and sent it to civil rights activists and preachers across the
>country on Feb. 6.
>
>"I went straight to the top," Downing said. "I hope something is done about
>it. These kinds of incidents have got to stop."
>
>Talk of Walker's death and the e-mail have been debated in various discussion
>groups and listservs on the Internet. The Delta Sigma Theta sorority and the
>Omega chapters at Grambling State University in Grambling, La., have e-groups
>where the e-mail was posted. There were 48 members on one group and 109
>members on the other. A discussion board based in Phenix City, called "redneckin,"
>posts updates and is a venue for discussion on the case. The e-mail has been
>posted on the National Association of Black Journalists listserv. A woman in
>Fredericksburg, Va., said she has received the e-mail three times.
>
>Bobby White, 27, of Fort Worth, Texas, first saw the e-mail on a message
>board for nightlife in Washington, D.C.
>
>"I was dismissive of it at first," White said. "I couldn't believe something
>this heinous occurred and didn't get any national attention."
>
>Then he received the e-mail from his girlfriend in Maryland. She received the
>e-mail from her mother and then sent it to White with a phone call. He went
>to a news database and found out the shooting was true.
>
>"The way the facts were laid out in the e-mail, I just thought something like
>this cannot happen," White said. "Then I checked it out. I thought, 'This is
>crazy and heinous.' "
>
>He forwarded it on to a friend.
>
>Emotions vs. facts
>
>Penned shortly after Walker's funeral, the heartfelt e-mail was more
>emotionally charged than factually accurate.
>
>"Heavy, heavy feelings were involved," Blackmon said of the e-mail. "I told
>Will I am just going to put my feelings down."
>
>Some information believed to be accurate then has since been proven false.
>Other references, while powerful, cannot be supported. Examples from the e-mail
>include:
>
>• "... was brutally murdered...": Murder is a legal charge that includes
>intent or premeditation. No legal charge has been brought, and the incident is
>under investigation as a homicide, which means death at the hands of another.
>
>• "... sheriffs made a conscious decision to shoot... (the person) claimed
>that he made a 'judgment call'...": Deputy David Glisson has made no public
>statements, declined interviews and the comments made to investigators have not
>been disclosed to the public.
>
>• "... they had targeted the wrong vehicle...": According to the sheriff's
>statement on Jan. 16, the officers stopped the vehicle, based on the
>surveillance link to the apartment where drug dealing was allegedly taking place, but
>officers found no guns or drugs in the vehicle. An informant had reported to
>police that the alleged dealers' drug connection from Miami would arrive in a gray
>GMC Yukon, and the men inside would be armed.
>
>In Columbus
>
>Ledger-Enquirer staffers and editors also have received e-mails regarding the
>shooting. Mayor Bob Poydasheff, interviewed about the Walker shooting on the
>Dobbs show Wednesday, said Columbus residents are "agitated" and "grieving."
>But he said he is counseling patience to the community to wait for the Georgia
>Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Muscogee
>County Sheriff's Department internal investigation to be complete.
>
>State Rep. Carolyn Hugley, whose husband, Deputy City Manager Isaiah Hugley,
>is a fraternity brother of Walker's, said she had not seen the e-mail.
>
>"It's a topic of strong concern because it's a tragic thing that happened,"
>Hugley said. "People have been waiting patiently for more results, because
>they're concerned with the outcome."
>
>"The eyes of the nation are on Columbus, and we have to make sure justice is
>reflected back to them."
>
>State Rep. Calvin Smyre, who urged the GBI to get involved in the case, also
>had not seen the e-mail posting:
>
>"The longer the cloud hangs over Columbus, the darker all this is going to
>get. The wait feeds suspicion," Smyre said. "The longer we wait for the results
>of this investigation, the more the credibility of the report comes into play.
>
>"I think it's time for us to hear something. People want to move on, to get
>this behind us, to see what the answers are. We're all trying to find the
>truth."
>
>Muscogee County Sheriff's Capt. Joe McCrea said Wednesday he had fielded "a c
>ouple dozen" calls, some locally and some from out of state, asking about the
>case.
>
>At one point last month, a radio talk show host from Detroit called him and
>announced that he was on the air. Some of the callers read to him verbatim from
>various e-mails being circulated.
>
>The bulk of the calls came within the first weeks of the shooting then began
>to wane till about two weeks ago, McCrea said.
>
>"At first, they're all upset about what they've read," McCrea said. "I tell
>them there's a little more to it and then after a while they seem to be a bit
>more satisfied."
>
>This week a new e-mail being circulated found its way to the department.
>
>"This particular week, it's the one where they think the incident happened
>last week," said the sheriff's captain. "Our response has been to give them a
>brief background on the status of the investigation, where it is and what we've
>done in terms of calling in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the FBI."
>
>McCrea said the "primary concern from most of the callers" was that the
>shooting was being investigated.
>
>"They seem to be reassured when they're told we have not one, but two,
>outside agencies investigating it," he said.
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