Posted on 06/22/2010 11:52:35 AM PDT by presidio9
Since the shooting, the 2-year-old Rogucki twins have awakened each morning crying out for their murdered mother.
"They wake up ... saying, 'Mommy!'" their 19-year-old brother, Lorenzo Rogucki, reported.
"I hear them screaming my mother's name."
The twins were still sleeping at 10:30 a.m. Monday and not a sound came from the family's first-floor apartment in Coney Island as I spoke outside with the oldest of Victoria Rogucki's seven children.
"They know, but they don't know know," Lorenzo said of the twins. "They know their mother is not there in the morning."
To the right of the door stood a big floral display that his 9-year-old brother's Little League team sent to their mother's funeral on Friday. Abie Rogucki is a star pitcher.
"He hasn't been going to a lot of games lately," Lorenzo said. "My mother used to take him to all the baseball games. She came home, she knew how many strikes he had, how many hits he had."
Lorenzo paused.
"She was a mom. A real mother."
He looked across the small courtyard to where she had fallen after being struck by two of a flurry of bullets on June 9.
"My mom was right there," he said. "I was like 'Mom!'"
Lorenzo told me he got into a fight earlier in the day and his vanquished opponent had returned for a rematch.
His mother had come out to see what was causing all the commotion as one of the opponent's friends, identified by police as 29-year-old Isa Johnson, pulled a gun and started firing.
In an added twist, police say the others who had guns included the murdered woman's 17-year-old son, Ishmel Rogucki. He has been in custody since the night of the shooting and missed his mother's funeral. The grand jury's finding is pending.
"I just wish it was a dream," Lorenzo said.
He went back into the apartment. The twins, Jordan and Jayden, would soon be waking.
I gazed down to where the mother's lifeblood had seeped onto the pavement, and then across Surf Ave., to the Boardwalk, the beach and the water.
The seashore these days brings thoughts of the big oil spill down South, whose root cause is corporate greed, a reckless disregard for the welfare of others for the sake of making a few more dollars.
Corporate greed is also a major factor in the continuing blood spill at shootings across the country, too many here in New York. The leading voice against effective gun control is the NRA, which is a tool of the gun industry.
The primary goal of the gun industry is the same as that of the oil industry: to make money. The NRA's primary goal is to protect the gun industry's profits, however much blood is spilled.
And what profits they are!
One high-end manufacturer, Glock, revealed in a 1994 patent lawsuit that it rakes in 68% profit on each weapon.
BP had a net profit margin before the oil spill of 8.32%.
Google reports only 25%.
Meanwhile, the Rogucki twins cry out each morning.
"Mommy!"
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Mikey:
How contorted a mind do you have to process gang bangers using guns to the NRA making profits? Your billionaire mayor has done everything he can think of (even broken federal laws) to ensure that legal gun ownership / possession is illegal in New York. Yet this happened and you blame the NRA and criticize Glock for making a profit.
Does the no guns equal more crime resonate with you or are you so indoctrinated with anti-gun culture that you ignore the facts?
Never mind answering the question; by your tripe column I can deduce the answer
If you were dumb enough to spend money on the print edition today, you would see this story on the same page as that of 33-yr old JFK customs officer Maurice "Big Mo" Gordon who left his wife and 14 month old baby on Long Island so he could go clubbing with his younger cousins in Queens. The News story claims that a gun killed him senselessly after he protected his female cousin from a lothario at a nightclub. Said lothario was ejected, be waited for him in the parking lot, where Big Mo was no doubt polite but forceful, and definitely did NOT flash his own piece. In any case, Casa Nova then followed Big Mo to his father's house, where he "sometimes crashes," and a gun appeared and fired 27 bullets at Big Mo. Conclusion: Obviously caused by the NRA.
Did I miss something?
The Daily News sometimes almost always posts editorials in the News section, which is why I posted this one to editorial here.
The airplane industry killed 3000 during 911. /sar
This woman was obviously not unfamiliar with guns, since her own son had used one in the past, and likely knew others who had done so, as well. I don't want to be critical, because a mother immediately thinks of protecting her kids, and that's what she was doing when she went out that night, but maybe she should have thought about her other kids, and not gotten involved in the fray involving her older son.
Boys night out can be dangerous when you bring your female cousins.
Investigators believe bullets went flying soon after Rogucki's 16-year-old daughter, Felicia, was spotted hanging out with two boys who are brothers in the courtyard of the O'Dwyer Gardens Houses.
When Felicia's 19-year-old brother, Lorenzo, tried to pull his sister from the siblings, the confrontation turned violent and Victoria Rogucki attempted to intervene.
"My wife was trying to break it up," whispered Adie Maldonado.
Detectives were not immediately certain who fired the first shot, but bullets rang out from both sides of the struggle, sending residents scattering for cover - and Victoria Rogucki toppling to the ground.
"I told her 'Wake up,'" said Carlos Maldonado, Adie's brother. "I was just holding her but she wouldn't say nothing."
"She's a beautiful woman," said Carlos Maldonado, 48. "She takes care of everybody out here."
The two siblings - one 24, the other 21 - who were harassing Felicia Rogucki tried to flee the carnage in a 2006 Ford Mustang, which they crashed into a SUV on nearby W. 16th St. moments later, police.
The men each suffered gunshot wounds and are in stable condition at Lutheran. Investigators believe they shot Victoria Rogucki and wounded a 29-year-old man who may not have been involved in the fight, police said.
Their names were not released. Two of Rogucki's sons, Lorenzo and Ishmael, are being questioned at the 60th Precinct, their family said.
No one has been arrested, police said.
The old adage of “good cases make bad law” applies here. This is where a case involves an attractive or sympathetic victim compared to an unattractive defendant. The jury, or readers in this case, are encouraged to set aside rational rules and make decisions based on emotions. I hope, at least, this story is so blatantly emotional that rational people see it for what it is and refuse to be manipulated.
No kidding. A gangster starts a gang fight which ends up getting his mother killed and it is the gun’s fault? In a city where all hand guns are pretty much illegal, no less. This is perhaps the most stupid article I have ever wasted part of my life reading.
Actually, when I was in college, I got my ass kicked badly by a football player who threw a beer in the face of my female cousin who was still in HS and up visiting me. Good thing I left my glock home that night.
Where is the projectile barf alert?
Maybe the family should tell the 17 year old son to stop getting in fights with guns!
See post 14. I pretty much only post articles that I have a problem with.
It sounds like a domestic violence/lover’s quarrel more than ‘guns’ to blame!
******
Cops charged her son Ishmel Rogucki, 17, with criminal possession of a weapon, although it was not clear if he fired any shots - including those that struck his mother.
Three other people also were wounded in the gun battle.
Investigators believe bullets went flying soon after Ishmel Rogucki and his brother Lorenzo, 19, tried to pull their sister Felicia, 16, away from her older boyfriend in the courtyard of the O’Dwyer Gardens Houses.
“My wife was trying to break it up,” whispered Maldonado.
Felicia’s boyfriend and his brother tried to flee the bloodshed in a 2006 Ford Mustang, which they crashed into an SUV on nearby W. 16th St. moments later, police said.
Investigators are exploring whether the brothers or their friends shot Victoria Rogucki, police sources said. Lorenzo Rogucki also was being questioned by cops.
Yours is a story ripped right out of todays tabloids or maybe an episode of ‘Law and Order’! ;-)
“Again, I feel terrible for her, and her younger children, but I can’t think of even one reason that the gun industry and their evil huge profits might be responsible.”
I feel bad for her young sons but I have nothing but contempt for her. Single motherhood is the best way I know to raise a bunch of gang bangers and that is exactly what it looks like she did. Hopefully these kids will go to their father (if they even know who he is) and at least have a chance at a normal life. Otherwise it’ll be foster care and good bye to any chance that they might have had. Sucks to have bad parents.
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