[wastoute]

This young lady failed to do something I have begged my children to always remember. SITUATIONAL AWARENESS. Even a gun won't save someone who isn't paying attention. A young woman going to her car late at night in a deserted parking lot, if not asking for escort should at least be paying attention, and if packing should have her hand on the piece! If this animal had started running toward her and she spun and drew down on him, we might be enjoying a very different ending. Too bad...

[mlc9852]

Thank God the man in Arizona was armed and was able to shoot this guy. Otherwise he may still have been on the loose.

[cricket]

"This young lady failed to do something I have begged my children to always remember. SITUATIONAL AWARENESS"

. . .we live with such feelings of 'safety'. . .it is like you have to remind yourself that you must be aware. This girl was apparently just recovering from the death of her fiance' a few months ago. . .her mind may have just been 'resting' somewhere else.

That said; you have got to keep reminding the children to be just that. . .not fearful. . .just aware; and with a plan.

I wish she could have thrown the keys. . .ANYthing; besides having to be in that truck . . .

So very sad. I don't know how families cope with the kind of grief that must follow when your child or loved one is taken murdered.

[jwpjr]

Part of what I see as a problem in this case is the common requirement that employees park far from the building, to leave he closer parking places for customers. Some malls are VERY insistent about this and even fine merchants who don't enforce the rule. That's fine for daylight hours, but when employees are going to be going to their cars at MIDNIGHT it's a very dangerous thing to require. In the tape she had to walk all the way across the parking lot to get to her vehicle. Wal-Mart, if they have this rule for employee parking, is in no small part responsible for her death. It should not be left up to the employee to seek an escort to her car, the parking lot should be monitored during this time period and a guard should be required, not asked, to accompany employees to their vehicle.

[NativeTexun]

To say she wasn't paying attention can never be accurately determined now since she is not alive to recount the seconds from the time she heard him running towards her and her attempt to escape into the safety of her truck. It is known from the tape that he began running towards her. He was perhaps crouched by a car and found his victim and made a run. There might not have been much ANYONE could do at that point but try to get inside their vehicle, lock the door and speed away. I think the reports said he knocked her to the ground.

I can tell you that here in Tyler and East Texas we have a false sense of safety .. www.kltv.com shows video clips of interviews with friends of Megan, the family of Williams and with local Saturday shoppers who say they are now rethinking their "late-night" trips out be it to Wal-Mart, Target, grocery, etc.