It was 1979- a year before the riots in Liberty City. Annette asked me to take her to lunch. We went to the Burger King on 79 St and NW 27^th Ave. When we were eating I noticed three men just looking over at our table. Each time I looked I noticed they were eyeing us.

            I didn’t think too much of it until I noticed one of the men got up and started walking toward our table. I thought, what’s going on here? I don’t know this guy. So I stood up and when I did I could see Annette’s purse on the chair next to her.

            The alarm bells in my head went off. I was on full alert. He continued to approach and I was getting ready to see what he’s up to. Well, was I in for a surprise. He came right up to me, smiling all the time, and without me seeing his fist, he swung as hard as he could hitting me on the side of my head. Never saw the fist coming.

            I fell over the chair, it was a wrought iron chair, and landed on the floor. He grabbed her purse and fled. I got up, jumped in my car, and drove after him. I spotted him with the purse, tucked under his arm like a football player with a football. I began to catch up to him. A thousand thoughts were going through my mind. I was very angry but also extremely alert to the dangers in the area. Then it occurred to me Annette never carried more than $5.00 in her purse.

            This pursuit, made me realize I could get hurt, possibly killed. I stopped the car and returned to the store.

            There they were, the two other guys the robber had been sitting with. I ran to the manager and shouted what happened. I told him the attacker’s two friends were still sitting in the store.

            He was busy serving fries and burgers he didn’t say much except don’t get too excited, this happens a lot. I went over to the two sitting at the table telling them not to go anywhere.

            I stood near them and made sure they didn’t leave. I kept going between them and the manager trying to get him to call the police. After about 10-15 minutes I looked over at the table and the two guys had walked out of the store. Sometime later after that the police arrived. There were two policemen. I learned later that they never go by themselves to a report of a robbery. They took a report and left. In Annette’s purse were our keys to all our cars and to our houses. Her driver license and other items, with our address, were also in the purse. For weeks I wondered if this same individual would attempt to rob our house. After a week or so, the concern faded away.

            Sometime later I was at work and a policeman came in to my office. He showed me a lot of pictures of suspects. I immediately pointed the attacker out from some 25 pictures. He asked me if I was sure about the identification mentioning I had only seen him for a few seconds.

            I replied the men came right up to my face with this big broad smile I could see clearly the big gold tooth. I said I was certain. The detective said he knew the man, knew his street name, knew about where he lived. Nothing happened. He was never picked up. From the day of the incident, I had severe back pain. The pain persisted for over one year.

            About six months later, I watched a local news story about a young man who had been arrested for robbing an elderly woman on Miami Beach. He was apprehended as he drove into his neighborhood with a stolen TV sticking out of the trunk of the car he had just stolen.

            When police identified the owner of the car, they later learned she had been murdered in her own home.

            As the name and picture of the man became available, there was a most startling discovery. This was the same man who six months earlier had robbed Annette and had in his possession all the keys to our houses. I guess you could say I was just a bit surprised.

            Eventually, he was brought to trial. I was contacted by the police and was very interested in testifying against this man. Sometime later when I called about giving testimony, the district attorney’s office responded by saying based on the enormous amount of evidence they had on innumerable crimes, my testimony was not needed.

            I followed the trial. The man was eventually convicted and sentenced to Raiford Prison, Deland, Florida, a maximum security prison. Story doesn’t end there.

            About five months later the news reported that somehow he had stolen a sharp kitchen knife and had it pointed at the neck of one of the female staff members in the prison. While making his demands, they allowed him to speak to his mother by phone.

With a split second of inattention to what was happening in conversation with his mother, sharp shooters shot him to death.