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What would you do if this were your daughter?
The fight started over a razor.
Karen's 14-year-old daughter thought her mother was using hers, the mother said. The girl was upset, began yelling. Her father tried to quiet her down.
She kicked him in the groin. He slapped her.
She called the police.
The call that police received was that the girl had been beaten by her father who had left, according to police. Twenty minutes later the girl called police back, claiming that he was coming home and that she was bleeding from her arm and had a black eye.
Police dispatchers summoned 28-year-old officer James Manor and another unit.
Manor wouldn't make it.
Karen is a 34-year-old homemaker who wouldn't give her last name. She didn't want to identify her daughter.
Karen was a Clark High School graduate, class of 1994.
Manor was a Clark graduate. Class of 1999.
Friday evening, Karen stood on the second-story landing of the Ritz apartments, a lower-income complex on Flamingo Road a mile and a half east of where Manor collided with a pickup en route to the call. There she reflected on the pointless tragedy.
"I feel kind of guilty. I really do," she said, fighting back tears. "I've got that hanging over my head, and I think that's always going to be over my head."
Later, she added: "It makes me feel like I'm the one that got him killed."
Karen said neither she nor her husband were home when their daughter made the calls. She was at the hospital being treated for kidney failure. Her husband had gone to pick her up. When they arrived home, Karen took the phone away from her daughter and explained to dispatchers that the situation wasn't what she had made it out to be.
Her daughter didn't have any marks on her face and wasn't hurt. Her husband, on the other hand, couldn't walk for much of Thursday.
Her daughter had trashed the apartment while her parents were gone, however. The mirrors were smashed. Karen's perfume bottles were in pieces.
When an officer showed up about an hour later, he was calm and polite, Karen said. He explained that there were options for dealing with her daughter.
She told him her daughter had rage issues and was seeking treatment.
The officer left without making an arrest.
Karen didn't find out until later through news reports that an officer responding to her daughter's call had died. She didn't tell her daughter.
"I had no idea who he was, but I heard he was a very good man," she said. "I'm very sorry for his family and for everything else."
A few minutes later, Karen's daughter came bounding up the stairs, a petite blonde with a ponytail in black jeans and a black T-shirt.
Karen stopped her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm going to tell you something," Karen said. "You know that night, with you and your father? That night that you had called is the night that police officer died because he was coming to your phone call. But we're going to stop at that."
Her daughter blinked.
"I'm hungry. Did you eat my doughnut?"
I may have wanted kids a few months ago, but I take that back.
Good thing I didn't actually have any. I really wouldn't know how to deal with this. I'd ship her off to one of those boot camps for kids. What else could you do with her? It's kids like these that make you think kids in this country are worse than we were growing up. But I'm sure she's just the exception, I'm sure most kids are pretty decent. Aren't they? OK they aren't.
. Most drop out of high school and want to be in a gang because tough guys (and girls) get more respect. But maybe that's just where I live. Perhaps kids in normal cities are better. Also this girl scared me off women for good. I've come to the conclusion women are just bat**** insane. Why can't they be normal like men?
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