Teen shoots family, kills another in car wreck

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feedthehogs

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-09-21-12-26-15

Teen kills family members, dies in crash

By ROGER ALFORD
Associated Press Writer

ELKHORN CITY, Ky. (AP) -- A 17-year-old who was sent home from school for being intoxicated shot his parents and grandmother to death, then died in a crash after police attempted to pull him over on a highway, authorities said. Another driver also was killed.

The teen was identified Wednesday as Matthew Hackney of Elkhorn Creek, a senior at East Ridge High School who authorities said had never been in trouble. School officials said the student had taken prescription painkillers.

Hackney was cited for public intoxication at the school Tuesday and released to the custody of his parents, State Police Lt. Bobby Johnson said.

That afternoon, a friend of the youth notified authorities of the shootings.

"He just told me he killed them," Christa Coleman, 18, told the Lexington Herald-Leader. "He said they had caught him with drugs and weed at school today. They had a drug test and he failed it, and when they tried to arrest him, he ran."

She said Hackney asked her if he could hide out at her home for a few days "and I told him, 'No way.'"

The bodies of Ivan Hackney, 47, Shirley Hackney, 44, and Wilma Hackney, 63, were found at the teen's home, Johnson said. Mike Maynard, a paramedic for the Elkhorn City Ambulance Service, said they were all shot multiple times, apparently with a large-caliber rifle.

Johnson said state troopers spotted Hackney on a highway and attempted to stop him, but Hackney lost control and crashed head-on into a pickup truck, killing Terry A. Taylor, 41, an Elkhorn City employee.

Pike County School Superintendent Frank Welch said the teen told an assistant principal that he had taken five Ultrams, a prescription painkiller. "I don't think at this point in time they know exactly where he got them," Welch said.

Hackney had never been in trouble at the school before, and students, teachers and administrators were devastated, Welch said.

"It's just a tragedy," Welch said. "When you talk to the teachers and the people who knew him, they say there wasn't a better student who ever went through that school than him."

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Question?

Why kill over a little weed and pills?

Has our society made the accepting of ones wrong doing taboo to the point you are willing to kill?

At work, if an employee screws up I ask them to come and tell me and we will work thru it.

It still amazes me how many will lie when there are witnesses who confront them in person.

I'm still trying to find that guy on the payroll, "Wasn't Me"
 
Never been in trouble ? I doubt that .Maybe they were just looking the other way or ignoring the danger signs.
 
Unfortunately, a juvenile drug offense, while not a death sentence, can mess a kid up rather more than might feel like life is worth living when things pile up on him/her. (Not that the kid didn't just cap these folks because he was stoned - we need to hear more.)

As a rent-a-cop, back when drug offenses were often felonies, we'd check to make sure the kids were OK (I used to patrol some properties adjacent to a popular college bar), and then step over them.

Now that they're usually misdemeanors, they tend to go all the way, and the rehab programs seem to cause more problems than they solve in many cases.

I'm not going to argue for legalization, and the penalties are now otherwise generally financial, but we really need to drop the "forever" parts....

Regards,
 
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