Mass. man kills 2 sisters, but police save the 3rd

[Xipe Totec]

Source: NPR

MILTON, Mass. March 29, 2009, 10:09 pm ET · A man fatally stabbed his 17-year-old sister, decapitated his 5-year-old sister in front of a police officer and then turned toward his 9-year-old sister with a knife in his hand before officers shot him dead in what their chief described as "a killing field."

There was no clear motive for the events that unfolded Saturday, the day after the 5-year-old's birthday, in a tony Boston suburb that also is home to Gov. Deval Patrick. But there was no doubt about the carnage wrought by 23-year-old Kerby Revelus against his sisters in the two-family home they shared with their parents and grandmother.

Five-year-old Bianca was killed as a cake for her birthday, which investigators believe was Friday, sat on the kitchen table. Nine-year-old Sarafina dialed 911 and watched police shoot her brother as her elder sister, 17-year-old Samantha, lay dead on the floor.



Read more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102483935

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Unspeakable horror

[bicentennial_baby]

1. Jeebus Christ...Milton, of all places?!

:wtf:

:(

[Xipe Totec]

4. We're talking blocks from my house

Two of my kids went to school with him and with his 17 year old sister.

[JI7]

6. have they told you what kind of person he was ?

[Xipe Totec]

11. The quiet creepy kind

He was jailed before he finished high school, but even before that, he didn't seem quite right.

The sister was a nice sweet young woman.

[EFerrari]

7. Schizophrenia? Paranoid from drugs? Hard to imagine what else it could be.

Horrible and probably, preventable. :(

[LisaL]

34. Apparently he would talk nonsensically and talk about

God's purpose for him.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/03/30/cryptic_talk_despair_then_an_afternoon_of_horror/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed6

[bicentennial_baby]

8. I know...I'm so sorry...

Just reading the piece is making me tear up. How horrific for our area. Hugs to you and your family. :hug:

[Xipe Totec]

13. Thank you

We are all in shock.

I just cannot fathom the event.

[uppityperson]

26. Oh hell, I am so sorry.

[Tim01]

2. No motive?

The guy is a homicidal maniac. That's the motive.

[MercutioATC]

3. It must have been an "assault knife"

I have no idea what an "assault knife" is, but they should be banned...


...and anybody that disagrees with me is a nut with repressed violent tendencies.

[Xipe Totec]

15. A household knife

An ordinary kitchen utensil.

[Brucie Kibbutz]

20. An assault knife only differs from a kitchen knife in appearance.

It just looks a little more scary. It's no more dangerous than the kitchen knife but they still need to be banned. Nobody "needs" an assault knife.

[EFerrari]

21. Can you be more inappropriate? Don't you have a whole dungeon

to go to? This DUer just had a horrible scare. Grow up.

[Brucie Kibbutz]

25. My comments didn't have a thing to do with any other DUer.

Why try to make it something it's not? Are you in need of attention?

[tkmorris]

30. That was disgustingly tactless

You'd do a lot better if you simply owned up to that fact and made the appropriate apologetic sounds. Acting as if you did nothing wrong doesn't make you right, it just makes you look childish in addition to being impulsive and insensitive. This thread is no place for comments like yours above.

[EFerrari]

32. Enjoy your stay at DU.

[bitchkitty]

48. No they don't need an assault knife. No more than you need to

be exploiting this tragedy.

[uppityperson]

27. Take it to the gungeon. That DUer had a bad scare and is very upset

grow up

[MercutioATC]

38. The guy killed his FAMILY. The OP was never in danger, despite the proximity.

...and it kind of illustrates my point. The concern about "assault weapons" is purely emotional...it has no basis in logic.

"Grow up"??? Your screen name is perfect.

[muriel_volestrangler]

39. 'Point'? there was no point to your blunt sarcasm

unless you count massaging your ego, and trying to stir things up.

[MercutioATC]

40. You may not have grasped it, but there WAS a point.

...which I clearly stated in the post you responded to.

[muriel_volestrangler]

43. Your ego - you want to hijack the topic to talk about your pet peeve

You want to talk about assault weapons. This isn't about them. That's why you should take your ego somewhere else.

[MercutioATC]

46. I'm sorry if your sensibilities were offended.

...and I hardly hijacked the thread.

Feel free to refrain from reading it if it upsets you.

[EFerrari]

53. There used to be a time when if one of us posted that we were

profoundly upset by an event close to us, that was respected.

[uppityperson]

50. There was no mention of "assault" weapons until yours. That type post

is better served in the gun forum.

Insulting me over my user name is mature? ha. ha. ha.

[Junkdrawer]

5. "decapitated his 5-year-old sister in front of a police officer"...

Was the officer in too much shock to react in time? I mean, we hear so many stories of officers shooting when they THINK they saw a knife. You would think decapitation with a knife would take a bit of time...

[EFerrari]

9. It sounds like the officer went in when it was either in progress or done.

Here's the Boston Globe:

The 5-year-old, Bianca, had just been decapitated when officers rushed into the house, Wells said by phone late last night.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/03/29/2_sisters_slain_in_milton_home/

[Xipe Totec]

17. Thanks for the link

I suspect we will continue to see variations on the description of the events, until the official reports come out.

[EFerrari]

18. I'm so sorry.

:hug:

[Xipe Totec]

10. a 5-year-old

Doesn't take much force with somebody so young.

It was probably a matter of a few seconds.

[LisaL]

31. Well, if the man held the five years old in front of him, the officer

might have been afraid to shoot as to not kill the five years old.
Or the officer didn't have enough time to shoot the man as the officer was just entering. I doubt the officer just watched the five years old being killed and didn't do anything because of shock.

[EFerrari]

33. Posted in #9.

[Marrah_G]

12. Unspeakable horror- that certainly describes this

I cannot wrap my brain around this event.

I cannot imagine being the surviving child or even the officer who saved her.

I suspect both will be in therapy for life.

[BeliQueen]

14. here's where I get tripped up about this story...

The brother was jailed at least twice for violent behavior but was released.

I understand that our justice system is overworked, but here's where the question to Obama about the leagalization of marijuana has a direct link. If our justice system wasn't so busy processing people for non-violent, drug-related crimes, it would have more resources to actually contain people who have committed violent acts.

[Xipe Totec]

16. He served his time

Short of keeping him locked up forever I don't know that the justice system could have prevented this.

The only thing that could have prevented this would have been a proper psychiatric evaluation and involuntary commitment.

[hedgehog]

22. If we didn't use our criminal justice system in place of decent

mental health care, we'd be even better off.

[muriel_volestrangler]

42. For threatening with a gun clip, and then posession of a gun

Revelus had at least two prior gun charges. In 2005, he allegedly showed a gun clip in an attempt to intimidate a package store clerk in Randolph who refused to serve him. In 2007, he was arrested with two other men in a car on Hebron Street in Boston and charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, and unlawful possession of a loaded firearm.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/03/30/cryptic_talk_despair_then_an_afternoon_of_horror/?page=2

And from the link in the OP:

Police had been called to the family's house in 2004 after a domestic violence report that Revelus had punched a woman living there, Wells said.

Though that may not have resulted in charges, if it's reported that way. The family may have decided not to press charges, which may well have been a good decision at the time.

I wouldn't have thought the charges brought against him would merit a long sentence. The domestic violence is worrying, but the family may have believed he could change. And there's a distance between punching someone, and killing them.

[EFerrari]

47. The neighbors report he behaved oddly once he came back from prison.

I'm betting he had the onset of schizophrenia there but since our prisons are horrible, nobody either noticed or bothered to get him to the prison doctor.

[Brucie Kibbutz]

19. Thank goodness somebody had a...

gun.

[Fovea]

24. ...

[uppityperson]

28. Yeah, those little kids shoulda been trained! Take it to the gungeon

[Brucie Kibbutz]

29. I made no mention of training kids.

That's something you made up.

[uppityperson]

49. I didn't say you did.

That's something you made up.

[surrealAmerican]

45. ... and thank goodness it wasn't the murderer ...

... or the nine-year-old would be dead too.

[Berry Cool]

23. When I hear about things this awful, one thought comes to mind:

Meth.

It does damn strange things to people.

I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but sheesh.

[depakid]

35. Given the perpetrators age and history, it looks like schizophrenia

The Revelus family have lived in the house at 7 Belvoir St. for more than two decades, according to Romy Dorvil, a cousin who followed them from Haiti to the U.S in 1985. He said Kerby Revelus was moody and "always to himself" but not threatening or erratic. And he said he had never seen him behave violently toward his siblings.

...Neighbors said yesterday that Kerby Revelus behaved very erratically since his release from prison. "He would go off, just talking about random stuff, stuff that makes no sense," said neighbor Abdul Kamara. "Sometimes you would see him and he was normal. Sometimes you would see him and he was confused." Kamara said Revelus would wander up and down Belvoir Street most mornings drinking from a bottle in a brown bag.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/03/fistfight_with.html

[slackmaster]

36. Another day, another multiple murder by a violent felon who should have been in jail

:argh:

[Xipe Totec]

41. Seven murders in the Boston area over the weekend.

Three different incidents.

[polmaven]

51. Yes...

This was a terribly violent weekend in the area...I don't know what is happening around here lately.

This incident has had me down since I first heard it on WBZ radio yesterday morning. What horrid tragedy. Poor Saraphina will live with this always. Poor little girl. :cry:

[coyotespaw]

37. Sorry to hear about this, especially happening in your back yard as it is...

and I'm sorry that certain douchebags are using this as a soapbox to preach off of...

If I could get you a shot, I would.

[avaistheone1]

44. Those poor children.

I feel so sad for them.

[orleans]

52. ...speechless... n/t