Bike Jerks

From the Strib

Charges: Teen killed by man he was trying to rob
By DAVID CHANEN, Star Tribune

A 17-year-old boy who was fatally stabbed in south Minneapolis last weekend was killed by a man he was attempting to rob, according to charges filed Tuesday.
The court document said that Tim Jackson, who was killed, and Andre Whirlwind Horse, 17, had planned to go to the Greenway biking and walking path near 28th Street and Hiawatha Avenue S. about 1:30 a.m. Saturday "to find a person, beat them up and take their money," the court document said.
On Tuesday, Whirlwind Horse was charged with felony attempted robbery and aggravated robbery.
The robbery victim told police he was walking when two people passed by. He started to walk faster because it was late and he had heard about assaults in the area, the document said.
Whirlwind Horse and Jackson ran up behind the man, who feared for his safety and took a knife out of his pocket; the teenagers started to hit the man, who stabbed Jackson once in the stomach, the document said
Jackson and Whirlwind Horse chased the man, but he made it to Hiawatha Avenue and called 911, the document said. The man flagged down police, who found Jackson nearby. He died a short time later at Hennepin County Medical Center.
Whirlwind Horse, of Minneapolis, told police about the robbery and fight, according to the complaint. Jackson, of Minneapolis, recently had been accepted to Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan., friends said.

For those of you not familiar with Minneapolis the Greenway is a reclaimed railway corridor which runs east-west and is a major artery and resource for the Minneapolis cycling community. There have been problems in the last couple of years of cyclists and pedestrians being attacked, mugged, and assaulted with objects dropped from the many crossing bridges. In this instance the assailant was killed during the attack. This is obviously a very complex issue and it is definitely a tragedy that a young person lost their life, on the other hand the person being attacked could have easily been myself, or girlfriend, or friend. It's really hard for me to have sympathy for a person who gets their kicks from robbing, beating, stealing, and making the world a worse place with their senseless and stupid actions. It is indeed a tragedy, but one that easily could and should have been prevented. My heart goes out to the assailants family and the victim (the person who was assaulted) who now must live with this incident the rest of their life. Fuck thieving assholes who pray on the innocent.