Her Father Shot Him

This story serves as a fatal, cautionary tale. A narrative fraught with deception, youthful indescretion, bad judgement, disobedience, and lies. A tale with plot twist's that continually changed my opinion, and gave me cause for self examination.

A Houston father who fatally shot 17-year-old Johran McCormick, whom he discovered in bed with his 16-year-old daughter will likely not face charges. But he will still have to look in the mirror and face himself each and every day.

“What was going on in the person’s mind at the time of the shooting,  not what they found out after the fact” is key, said Houston area prosecutor Warren Diepraam. “They’re looking at what he was thinking when he made the decision to shoot.

 McCormick, who was unarmed, was discovered around 2:30 a.m. after the girl’s younger brother noticed two feet sticking from underneath his sister’s bed and went to tell his father.

The father, who has not been identified, grabbed his gun and ran to his daughter’s room where he confronted who he assumed was an intruder.

The girl initially lied and said that she did not know McCormick. The father and the teen argued and when it appeared that the boy was reaching for a gun, the father shot him. 

McCormick died at the scene.

His distraught mother, Zakia McCormick, is allegedly hoping that the girl’s father is charged with murder.

“If you take a life, you give your life,” Zakia McCormick  “We’re suffering. Why isn’t he suffering too?”

“I wish the father could have asked more questions, he could have picked up the phone,” said Shawn Curley, the teen’s father. “And for her to say she didn’t know who he was, that was most hurtful.”

McCormick was shot in the head.

At the time of his death, his parents both believed that he was in New Orleans for Spring Break and had no idea that he had returned.

“For him to be in someone else’s house at 2:30 in the morning is shocking to us,” Curley said. ”Every day one of us would tell him, ‘Don’t go by no little girl’s house if her parents don’t know you.’ “

The 55-year-old father suffered panic attacks after the shooting and was rushed to the hospital.

Scenario's like this have been a staple in teen comedies and coming of age stories ever since I can remember. A budding teenage girl hides a boy in her bedroom closet or under her bed and prays that he isn't discovered. It usually ends with a teenage boy climbing out of the window, dropping to the ground and running across someone's lawn. Each and every time that I've seen this situation play out I'd declare that if it were my daughter I don't know what I'd do. But it wouldn't be anything nice. Not taking into account the fact that I was once the teenage boy under the bed, or in the closet. I was so enamored at the time that I never considered the fact that this girl was somebody's daughter. At the time it just didn't resonate with me. It meant absolutely nothing.

As the patriarch's of their homes most men have the natural inclination to protect their families. But sometimes it is necessary to stop and consider the circumstances before you do something that cannot be undone. There are no do over's after murder. His daughter lied to him. Had she told the truth, her boyfriend would probably still be alive today.

McCormick disobeyed his parents who said, "Every day one of us would tell him, ‘Don’t go by no little girl’s house if her parents don’t know you.’ 

In addition he lied about where he would be. Although it seems like a small thing given the fact that just about all teenagers lie and deceive, his decision to do so put him in a perilous situation. So in a way Johran McCormick bares some of the responsibility for his own death. 

This girls father let his anger get the best of him and as a result he killed an unarmed child. In the end, bad judgement killed Johran McCormick.

So once again I ask myself what I would do if I was in the same situation. I definitely wouldn't kill the boy. But I would definitely "beat his behind", and leave him alive.

PR