Death at Clarion raises questions

A few weeks ago, Kristopher Mills, a Clarion University student, was shot dead just five short… A few weeks ago, Kristopher Mills, a Clarion University student, was shot dead just five short days after his birthday.

After what has been coined a botched burglary, Mills, in an attempt to flee the crime, was shot in the back by one of the residents of the house in question. Mills and his friend Jason Vaughan, both of Pittsburgh’s North Side, were charged with burglary, robbery, criminal conspiracy and trespassing.

This all transpired more than a week ago, and still no arrests have been made or charges filed connected to the death of Mills. But the police certainly had no problem expeditiously ascribing posthumous charges to Mills.

The problem that I see with the incident is quite simply that Mills was shot in the back during a home invasion and the police were not called immediately. I can’t imagine having my home broken into, consequently having to shoot someone and not possess an immediate need to call the authorities.

Speculation as to why that particular house was chosen, what the boys may have been looking for and why the police were not called by those directly related is still in question.

I came across two different reports that attempted to chronicle the events of the night, one from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and the other from KDKA news, the local NBC affiliate.

The Trib described Mills and Vaughan as “donning ski masks” and “walking into the ranch-style residence and subduing a man in the house.” The paper then said that, “The two kicked in a bedroom door and confronted a man and woman, police said. The man opened fire on Mills and Vaughan with a .40-caliber handgun, police said. Mills, who was shot in the back, ran out the front door and collapsed. Vaughan jumped out a window, police said.”

The report from KDKA however, in an interview with the landlord of the residence, described the situation by saying, “They got into some kind of an argument inside over something I don’t know- There was a closet or something that was locked and they wanted in it and they got into some kind of hassle over that. Then, the way I understand it, one boy jumped out the window, the other guy knocked down the door somehow and got out the door.”

Now, as far as which account is more accurate, I do not know, but the fact that they differ so greatly on multiple details is what interests me. Was the door kicked in upon entering or knocked down during escape? Was Mills shot in the house or outside of it?

The second account sounds as if the boys were invited into the house for the discussion of something in a closet, where the first account is describing a planned burglary.

As far as I could find, no reports of the incident mention that the young men charged with burglary were carrying weapons of any kind.

Questions as to what motivated the young men to break into this house, if indeed it was a break-in, need to be answered. I had decided to withhold, until now, that the two young men charged with the burglary were black, while the residents of the house were white.

Could this possibly have had any influence on the case or the information being disseminated to the public? Maybe. And how safe are students, when shootings are immediately determined “botched burglaries,” despite witness accounts of arguments going on inside the house?

And if indeed it was a botched burglary, as classified by police, it’s still a crime to shoot someone in the back while they are fleeing your residence. It is necessary for the suspect to be inside your home and posing a viable threat – regardless of whether or not you believe they have stolen something.

It’s imperative that students respect one another’s property – lives included. If Mills was in fact attempting to burglarize the residence then he was indeed in the wrong – death, however, is not an acceptable punishment.

This incident has sent many students at Clarion into mourning. In an interview with KDKA news, Doug Rowell, when asked about Mills said, “He’s an all-around good kid. He gets good grades, he helps other people to get good grades. I just never knew him to be involved in something like this.”

I guess the best we can do is to send our condolences to the family of Kristopher Mills, and wish everyone else involved our best until the truth is revealed.

E-mail Brandon at ble34@hotmail.com.