Whatever happened to a healthy respect for the elderly, if not for religious reasons, out of a conviction that the most vulnerable in our community deserve to be treated with love and compassion?
That’s the question that many are asking following the senseless beating and murder of an 85-year-old lady who was guilty of nothing more than attempting to enjoy an evening of relaxation at a local bingo game, only to be kidnapped and later killed in savage fashion.
The victim, Yoko Cullen, was apprehended on the evening of May 18, following a Bingo session at a Collinsville, Ill. bingo hall, allegedly by a neighbor.
According to details from a search warrant application, three individuals – LaTosha Cunningham (who lived less than a mile from Cullen and was also a regular at the bingo hall), DaQuan Barnes and Demarcus Barnes (both associates of Cunningham) – waited for Cullen in the parking of the bingo hall, detained Cullen, forced her into the trunk of her own car, then drove her to a remote area in East St. Louis with a reputation as a dumping area for stolen cars.
DaQuan Barnes went on to state that Cunningham, after noticing that Cullen had seen her license plate number, decided to kill Cullen. So the three suspects, purportedly, beat Cullen with a tire iron, robbed her (pocketing about $130 each), bought gasoline and torched Cullen’s car, with her still in the trunk.
The Metro East Auto Theft Task Force discovered the car after Cullen’s relatives reported her missing, identified the car and discovered the body of Cullen in the trunk.
Cunningham, and Demarcus and DaQuan Barnes (all three originally from East St. Louis) were arraigned on first degree murder charges the following Monday, with Cunningham fainting, then attempting unsuccessfully to vomit into a trash can as her charges were read.
East St. Louis Police Detective Michael Floore confirmed that it was his belief that the motive was robbery. It is my personal belief that the impetus is savagery, pure and simple.
What type of individual willingly preys on the most vulnerable in our society? Who would concoct a premeditated plan to beat, rob and then murder an 85-year-old women over $390? Only a savage.
This could have been any of our mothers or grandmothers who frequent the local casinos for “entertainment,” only to have their lives snuffed out by individuals who are either too lazy to work, too hardened to have compassion or too savage to care about the consequences and the impact of their actions on the families of their innocent victims.
What’s even more disheartening is that a woman, LaTosha Cunningham, by all accounts was the ring leader and had previously done a nine-year stint for robbing and shooting an elderly woman back in 1993.
And for Cunningham to have the audacity to engage in the courtroom theatrics of “fainting” and dramatically attempting to “vomit” during her arraignment is even more disgusting, given her alleged indifference and viciousness in the alleged beating and murder of her elderly victim.
Email: jtingram_1960@yahoo.com.
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