Recently,  a disgruntled employee at Grady Crawford Construction on Greenwell Springs Rd murdered 2 female employees of the same company. The alleged shooter’s reason was that the company refused to pay his unemployment, thus, he entered the business with a .357 and shot 3 employees before he was wrestled to the ground and disarmed. Unfortunately 2 of the victims, Cheryl Boykin and Dianna Tullier, did not survive the incident.

Its never a good time to receive news that a member of your family was murdered for no apparent reason, but to have it happen so close to Christmas makes it even harder to cope with. With that in mind, I was completely appalled that a local news crew located surviving members of the Boykin family and drove to their home for an interview on camera merely hours after the incident. It was the most classless act I have ever witnessed by a news crew.  The photographer made sure to zoom in on the Christmas decorations out front of the house and also made sure that decorations were visible in the actual interviews of the Boykin children. What did they expect the children to say, honestly? One of the Boykin children broke down in tears when speaking of having to break the news to his niece about her aunt’s absence on Christmas Eve. I’m sure this is the type of stuff that the media thrives on, but I call it completely irresponsible journalism on the part of everyone involved. Its obvious that the Boykin family gave their consent to be interviewed and for the story to be aired, but that doesn’t make this incident any more acceptable.

In the future, rather than prey on the feelings of families of murder victims for a ratings boost, perhaps the media should focus their attention on the actual story itself and leave the innocent people out of it. The real story here is how much money you and I are going to spend over the next 10 years to defend, feed and house the guy who committed these murders and then confessed on live video moments after. What the victims family is going to do without their mother on Christmas is no business of yours, mine or your viewing audience, which has probably shrunk a good bit after watching that interview. I highly doubt you would appreciate me and my camera crew knocking on your door a few hours after your mother was murdered and asking you how you feel about the incident or wondering if you wanted to give a statement. Is it possible that just for a moment you could consider other people’s feelings before you act?

You should take it upon yourself to publish an apology for subjecting the Boykin family to unnecessary attention in their time of grief and pray that you never have to be victims twice in a single day like they were. Once due to the actions of Richard Matthews and twice because of your actions.

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Dave Roppolo
BatonRougeToday.com