Posted on 02/03/2005 6:00:06 PM PST by Gondring
As an actress, Nicole duFresne had roles in dozens of way-off-Broadway productions.
But it was an unfortunate real-life line witnesses say duFresne uttered before her slaying — "What are you going to do, shoot us?" — that has brought her to the public's attention.
Authorities have refused to speculate whether the 28-year-old actress and playwright's defiant stand against a bandit prompted him to shoot her to death last week on a New York City street.
"Regardless of what the victim said or did not say, the person responsible for her death is the one who pulled the trigger," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said earlier this week.
Safety advocates, however, have cited the case as a lesson in how not to respond to a holdup.
On Wednesday, the Washington-based National Crime Prevention Council responded to widespread reports about duFresne's last words by circulating a list of tips on how to survive a mugging.
"It demonstrates that confronting an attacker is probably the worst thing you can do," said council spokesman Todd Post.
DuFresne, a Minnesota transplant who had lived in Seattle before coming to New York, listed "stage combat" as one of her skills on her Internet resume. She was leaving a bar with her fiancé and another couple at about 3 a.m. Jan. 27 when they were accosted by a group of youths who had already tried to rob another person earlier in the evening.
Witnesses told police that when the group demanded the other woman's purse, duFresne responded with: "What are you going to do, shoot us?" Police said she also might have gotten into a brief shoving match with the shooter before he fired a bullet into her chest.
Police arrested the alleged triggerman, Rudy Fleming, 19, and two teenage girls they say took a cell phone and credit cards and helped hide the murder weapon. All three have been charged with murder and robbery.
On its tip sheet, the crime prevention council advises potential victims to stay cool and comply with robbers. At the same time, people should take mental notes on what the assailant looks like so they can provide a detailed description to police, the sheet says.
A robbery "is more about power than anything," said Alfonso E. Lenhardt, president of the nonprofit council, known for its McGruff the Crime Dog mascot.
"It's a tragedy, but in this case it sounds like (the suspect) felt he wasn't getting the respect he was due," Lenhardt said. "When a gun is in the hands of a desperate person with low self-esteem, they're going to react that way."
The others charged in the killing are Ashley Evans, 18, and Tatianna McDonald, 14. Two young men were charged in the earlier robbery attempt, while two other youths are considered by police to be witnesses.
A graduate of Emerson College in Boston, duFresne was a founding member of the Present Tense Theater Project and acted with the LAByrinth Theater Co., according to her online resume. She wrote a play called "Burning Cage" with Mary Jane Gibson, the woman with her and her fiancé at the time of the shooting.
"Burning Cage," about two women in an asylum who are targeted for brainwashing experiments with LSD, toured in 2002 at fringe theater festivals in Canada and the United States.
DuFresne's other play, "Matter," is about an amnesiac whose apartment is taken over by a violent and seductive intruder. It was performed in Brooklyn in 2003.
Exactly.
Criminals choose. They make they're own choices. Other people don't make, or turn them into criminals.
Meth has been a growing problem here in Montana for about 25 years.
So true.
Didn't Scott Peterson think he would never get caught??
Oh no, I mentioned that case again!! Sorry.
I'm 100 % pro GUN.
That's because if everyone has a gun, the penalty for robbing someone may be death.
The harsher the penalty the less likely People WILL BECOME CRIMINALS.
Thank you for a sane and thoughtful post.
I think your daughters are most fortunate
to have you, and somehow, I truly believe
they would act accordingly if confronted
with a similar situation.
Bless you.
I took judo classes while I was in army electronics school down in Huntsville, Alabama, from this Japanese master who had a studio in town. Maybe I'd grab his arm and try a hip throw. Or maybe I'd just try a good hard chop at his wrist. If it failed, I'd get killed. But it would still be smarter than daring the guy to shoot you so he can prove his manhood.
The combination leads to a high crime rate.
Liberals believe that guns cause crime, therefore more gun control is (always) a good thing.
Liberals play a statistics game. They'll get someone, just not me, they say to themselves.
This leaves only the consequences of the high crime rate: the victims. By necessity, liberals believe that victims must somehow have brought about their own fate.
Police merely enable the crime rate by enforcing gun control. By the time a real crime has occurred, they step in to wash the blood off the sidewalk and write up a report.
Whether or not the quote by the victim is accurate, from the liberal perspective, the blame must be pinned on the victim-- not the laws which makes crime so lucrative.
Do you have that recipe?
Malaysia has the death penalty for the use and sale of narcotics. Hard to find any drugs there:)
Yes.
There will always be criminals,
but there will be more criminals with a lax justice system.
Oh my!
I am shocked indeed!!
Yes, that's what I meant. Sorry.
ALL men are created equal.
I have been in Ventura for over 20 years. I heard of meth, but I thought it was used mostly by the Hells Angels and gangbangers. The last few years, it has moved into the middle, and upper middle classes.
She made big mistake in mouthing of to a mugger with a gun and no skills to back it up.
That's why we have so many.
Violent crimes deserve MUCH
harsher punishments, if only
to keep those persons off the street.
As for a deterent: IF THE DEATH PENALTY MEANT 'DEATH'
that might help, but I am truly interested in getting
laws passed that would put pedophiles in prison for
LIFE on their FIRST CONVICTION.
YES!!!!!
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