4 Dor: Chapter 3, "Freed Brian"

I ended Chapter one of this surprising pile of posts with:

Did he snap and do this bizarre crime, and therefore continue the charade in jail and even to his own family, leading them to make this spectacle? Or is he truly innocent and the law enforcement machine behind his arrest have a bone to pick with him, were desperate for a collar, or are simply inadequate beyond even Lynwood's finest?

And wouldn't you know that it apparently was a faulty law enforcement machine after all:

third construction worker, who is 19, escaped unharmed and identified Dorian after being shown an 8-year-old driver's license photograph of the officer, sources said.

But Keith Dahl, 64, an Indiana farmer who was shot and robbed of $60 about 40 minutes later by a man who asked about honeybees, was unable to identify Dorian when he was shown a photo array in the hospital, police said.

Well, fuck, even I was leaning towards believing he was guilty primarily because I had as hard a time believing law enforcement would fuck over one of their own like that without some serious evidence. An 8 year old drivers license photo? Seriously? And while his family and friends were making asses of themselves at a bar in Lynwood, Will County Sheriff Paul Kaupas:

acknowledged that he had doubts about Dorian's involvement and continued to investigate the shootings even after the officer's arrest. "We were on the fence on this case," Kaupas said. "We had questions in our minds."

Well, laa-di-daa...Thanks for nothing asswipes. What a colossal failure and waste of time, money and completely unnecessary stress placed on all involved. I am ashamed at myself for believing it, or as one of my anonymous Facebook posters exclaimed:

I just want to say to everyone who posted shit and sent me messages for standing up and by Brian Dorian stand in line and take a turn eating crow!!!! And while your at it......KISS MY ASS!!!!!!!!!

C'est la vie! I don't feel like eating crow as I certainly wasn't sure but I am still not on board with the T-Shirt shit, innocent or not, that was some bullshit better kept quiet. So, lesson learned, next time one of your friends is arrested for a random, insane shooting spree, keep it on the down low so you don't embarrass your community. Seriously, people at work, random friends who didn't come from the area, the majority of the idgits who comment on the majority of the newspaper articles regarding this all thought the 'free Brian' T-shirt thing was dubious at best, insulting and asinine at worst.

In the end, they were right so it is really just water under the bridge at this point, better for him, his family and his friends that it worked out and he was surfing the internet instead of weirdly shooting at people while not envying them. Now the real question who the fuck DID do it? And while they are looking they could also take this advice:

"The Will County state's attorney owes the victims of the attacks, their families, Brian Dorian, the officers of the Lynwood Police Department and the residents of the village of Lynwood an apology for rushing to judgment, thereby causing a great deal of pain and suffering for everyone involved,"

Now, unless some shit changes (you never know) may I never mention the name Brian Dorian in my blog ever again! And so ends the 4-Dor Saga...Oh, and I never did mention what that meant, 4-Dor is what we called him back in grade school...Because he was kind of fat, you see...

The end.

4 Dor: Chapter 2, "I don't envy you guys."

FREE BRIAN!

Chapter 2 will be brief as there may not really be a whole lot of new news until November 9th, this according to a Facebook post:

The latest news..... the case was continued, Nov 9th. Keep praying and keep the Dorian family in yours thoughts. We love and support you Brian, we know you are INNOCENT

Frustrating this must be for the 'Free Brian' crowd as no new answers, or even new questions, were provided. I believe many had hoped that this small hearing would have the prosecution provide more charges, more evidence or more something. Instead Dorian appeared via video pleaded not guilty and according to the Chicago Tribune:

Dorian, dressed in a red jail jumpsuit, did not show any reaction during a proceeding that lasted about five minutes.

So, not clear as to where the 11/9 date came from but presumambly from someone who was at the hearing. Also from the same article linked above:

"Could you imagine your 95-year-old grandma being accused of something like this? That's what this is like," said Jennifer Jakubielski, a friend of Dorian's for more than 30 years. "He's just a kind hearted, gentle man."

Weird, but supportive. If you scan through comments on any article related to this case thus far you pretty much find the crowd less likely to wear 'Free Brian' T-shirts. IN fact, many of those people (and much can be said about the folks who comment on newspaper websites) are down right offended by this. And I tend to agree, even if he is innocent we simply do not know at this time and frankly, unless we are Brian Dorian or someone actually involved, we cannot know the truth at this time. The "Free Brian" movement, and the bar it seemed to be centered around, is in poor taste. I also would drop the whole association with Brian's favorite baseball team, I can't imagine the Boston Red Sox would be thrilled with their logo usage here nor is Brian 11.

I just can't help but think that it would be disgusting to see these things if I were one of the victims, or the victim's families. I would keep it dialed down and see what happens...And you can wear your t-shirts after he is cleared.

The Northwest Indiana Times, for all intensive purposes the local paper for the region down there, has run numerous articles about this case and one of the more "yellow journalism' style articles HAS to be this one.
Good neighbor says:

"We are just completely shocked," Graefen said. "We felt comfortable. We had a cop on the corner."

The article goes on to say:

People on the block knew Dorian was a police officer. He waved at kids and often was tapped to mediate neighbor disputes.

But then Bad neighbor comes along and says:

However, something about Dorian was unsettling to Raeanne Sparks, who lives across the street.
When her dog got loose or something un-neighborly happened, he would yell at her, inciting panic attacks that tightened her chest and made her gasp for air, she said.
He made it known to everyone he was a cop, finding excuses to move his jacket and display the gun holstered on his belt. Sparks said he gave the impression of, "I'm the law, I'm better than you."

I wonder which neighbor will get the free 'Free Brian' shirt? Furthermore, the other interesting tid-bit picked up in the Times came from this article:

"One thing he said to my nephew and the other two is, 'I don't envy you guys,' then he shot them," said Kristina Garza, a Merrillville attorney and aunt to victim Josh Garza, 19, of Dyer.

If he is guilty then they should put that on the T-shirts.

What a fucked up thing this is...I seriously don't know why I am so damn "involved" by playing reporter here, though I feel I am more chronicling this as it's not every day someone you grew up with spends a week in the local news cycle. It really has no bearing on me, other than to say that it is surreal to have shared a very similar background, upbringing, scholastic experience, et al. and we are so very different. Plus the added attraction of the alleged and utterly random psychopathic behavior. Anyone who looks into this would want to know why and therefore, so do I. More so simply because I am ever so slightly connected to it. It adds to the excitement and drama and also features some good old fashioned, hometown ignorance on display for all to see and prematurely judge. So, the story goes...

4-Dor: Chapter 1

What better reason to have a semi-quarterly post then finding out someone you went to kindergarten through high school with was recently arrested for a bizarre, random shooting spree and murder!

What has made this event a little more surreal than just seeing his mug on the news and repeatedly hearing his name on TV and so forth is the added attraction of having Facebook around to help chronicle this entirely weird, and somewhat unprecedented, local 'story.' Years ago, pre-internet and particularly pre-social-networking, when a class mate went on a crazy, random, shooting spree in rural, near-by, suburbs one had to rely purely on word-of-mouth, newspapers and perhaps regularly scheduled news broadcasts to get some idea of what may have happened. Unless you were actually really close to the person or persons involved or their families there was nothing but rumor and "what he/she said" to go on. Now-a-days, in addition to rumor, gossip and TV news you have near instant access to so much more information. Not that anything is any more clear or specific as people seem to get cloudier vision with more information and in some cases seem down right delusional...or at least in denial.

The basic gist of what happened is that last Tuesday, October 5th a person described as 'disheveled' arrived at a burned out house being rehabbed in Beecher, a far south suburb of Chicago, and apparently asked the three guys working there if he could have some of the plywood laying around. Then, for no known reason (at the time of this writing anyhow) he pulled out a handgun and shot two of the three construction workers; killing one, severely wounding another and the third got away into a near-by cornfield. About forty minutes later the same alleged gunman pulled along side a 64 year old farmer in Lowell, Indiana and apparently asked him about raising honeybees on his property then shot him in his pick-up truck, took his wallet and shot him again. Then drove off into local infamy.

It became a running news story, a mini-media-fueled-panic set in and rumors, tips and vague descriptions came pouring into local law enforcement and the shooter became unofficially known as the "Honeybee Killer" as all kinds of rumor and misinterpretation factored heavily into the case. Schools in Lowell went into lock down and for a time local law enforcement appeared completely clueless as there seemed to be no reasonable pattern, motivation or connection to any of the victims. It seemed a completely random act spurred along, seemingly, by a serving of coincidence...Especially, where the farmer was concerned. The surviving victims quickly worked with sketch artists and soon thereafter, by Thursday (I believe) there were two rather vague sketches out there and a lot of (probably) media generated panic.

Personally, I have been in my usual it's-fall-too-busy-for-everything modes and so paid scant attention to the whole "Honeybee" thing other than to note that several of my high school acquaintances who live in and around the south-suburban hometown, were posting often during the morning of the shooting. I also took a gander at the police sketches and remember thinking that he looked a little like someone I would have gone to high school with; the specific thought was, "Now, watch it WILL be someone I went to high school with." Lo and behold...

As an exercise in showing how Facebook gave us instant feedback as this drama began playing out, let us take a journey through some status updates from the week in question (authors kept anonymous):

"apparently there is some psychopath on foot with a gun in my neighborhood, now who's gonna walk my dog? *puts on Kevlar and practices karate chops*"

and:

"i'm going to cancel my XM radio immediately... i was driving around south holland and dolton all day today with no idea there was a madman on the loose... maybe if i'd had local radio on i would have known to be a little more cautious..."

And, some of the best 'updates' came from someone who has a police scanner and posts on Facebook fairly often:

"Some of the Lake County IN school districts are on lockdown, an escaped convict just shot a man in Lowell, stole his truck and his heading south!!!"

This same poster went on all day long with updates, expressing annoyance that the area was on lock down and there were cops everywhere and "they" couldn't catch anyone and so on.

"I'm beginning to wonder if they are ever gonna catch this guy......geeeeesh!!! I feel sorry for all the police working on this, there are TONS of calls coming in for the truck and pretty much any guy wearing a hat!!!"

My favorite:

"I am now going out to walk the pups..so if I'm not back in 10 minutes, you can assume the psycho nutcase has shot me!!!"

The next day:

"It amazes me how easy it was for someone to casually go around shooting 3 people and simply disappear......geeesh!!!"

And finally Friday morning:

"They Finally have the killer in custody!!"

Followed quickly with:

"So the Honeybee Killer was Arrested in Lynwood!! Nice!!"

Then:

"I Grew Up with the killer...holy shit!!"

Which I am fairly certain every member of our high school class, and many from classes before and after ours, and many, many others from in and around the area in general said something quite similar that day. Allow me to take a moment to say that though I went to school with him for some 14 years I didn't know him that well. I knew him well enough to know that he was a cop, have mutual Facebook "friends" who happen to also be "friends" with him online, and I also knew that he is not the kind of guy who one would think of pulling off a random shooting spree. Then again, who is? How many killers, serial or otherwise, do you hear people say, "Well, it was just a matter of time before they caught that murdering scumbag!"

Now, many have, myself included, posted an important reminder that people are innocent until proven guilty and that is supposed to be true (save for the court of public opinion) but man is it ever hard to swallow that they got the wrong guy. Several high school acquaintances, including those quoted above, are refusing to believe that Brian Dorian is the right guy. And honestly, someone you know who has never appeared to be wonky, depressed, or whatever pulls some totally random shit such as driving around randomly killing people I should think, "easy to believe" wouldn't be something you would be saying much either.

Being someone fairly detached from this whole thing, other than having the vague geographic and historical connection I already described, it truly is a sad state of affairs to behold even from afar. Naturally, and foremost, for the victims and their families but also for the people who know Brian...Especially for the ones who are supporting him, creating Facebook groups supporting him, praying for him, apparently raising money for him, because they simply cannot believe that he did this heinous act.

"Seriously I'm tired of reading shit already!! I've known Brian since kindergarten & he was the sweetest & nicest guy! He'd help anyone that needed it & give you the shirt off his back! quit talking shit if you didn't even know him DAMN!!"

"I have thought hard all day about this>>>> Brian we talk all the time, and when we spoke several days ago, I sensed nothing in your voice that would make me believe you were depressed or anything. You were very excited about the Kentucky property and all your great clover growing in the yard for the deer. I pray this is all a misunderstanding....."

One person said he had seen him that day, though his original post claiming he was at their house for coffee that day has been removed, someone else asked that friend if it was true that the friend saw him that day to which he responded:

"yea, he was normal just like any other day. Nothing makes sense, his hearing is tomorrow, I plan on going."

Nothing makes sense indeed. For these folk's sake I truly hope that this was some horrible misunderstanding. That said, and this is not just because the media paints a negative picture, cops don't publicly arrest other cops, and by inference condemn said cop's police station, without a real good fucking reason. They busted into his house at 1 am with a team and an arrest warrant and those things are not gotten, generally, on the basis of weak evidence. Not to say that it is impossible as there are plenty of innocent people arrested, even executed, on false or incorrect information. Hell, there was a guy who was just released from prison for a murder he apparently didn't commit in Zion just a few years ago. However, he wasn't a cop and, to me, that makes a hell of a lot of difference. Point being, the people quoted above will realize soon enough but this guy, this poor miserable soul, is more likely the murderer then not.

So, selling t-shirts and bracelets at the Mall and making 'Free Brian' baseball card style logos seem a bit premature as does, all things being equal, declaring him guilty with out possession of all the facts. But if he did do it, and is guilty, I certainly wouldn't want to be selling t-shirts with mocked up baseball cards proclaiming, "Free Brian" and staging ridiculous opportunities for media exploitation such as this (see also; Channel 2, Channel 7) Especially when all the facts are not in. There is a lot of emotion behind those poor folks and their somewhat dubious claim that they have evidence that proves his innocence but cannot say what it is. I am no legal expert so that could very well be appropriate tactics but I can't see how the truth, if their evidence is indeed the truth, could hurt his case.

But to each their own. It is heartbreaking to think they all have it wrong and he is indeed the killer. At this point, it's as easy to believe that he is this random, psychotic, sociopath as it is to believe that this apparently massive law enforcement task force was so desperate to bring someone in that they would go through all the trouble of bringing in a cop who might fit the description. It seems like a really, really big mistake if he is innocent. Not much has been said yet about what they have on him, what evidence and so forth but they have said there may be additional charges and now an anonymous source has been cited claiming:

One of the two men whom Lynwood police officer Brian Dorian is accused of shooting in a spree of violence last week has identified Dorian from a lineup as the shooter, sources said Monday.

I say it's not looking good for him right now...But we will see as this plays out as later today (October 12th, 2010) there will be a court hearing where we may get a clearer picture. As this post is getting lengthy and is quite chock full of speculation I will wrap this up now and call it, 'chapter 1' and wait and see. Did he snap and do this bizarre crime, and therefore continue the charade in jail and even to his own family, leading them to make this spectacle? Or is he truly innocent and the law enforcement machine behind his arrest have a bone to pick with him, were desperate for a collar, or are simply inadequate beyond even Lynwood's finest? If he is the murderer I certainly hope none of the victims, or their families, saw any of that 'Free Brian' hoopla.