Saturday, August 25, 2007

Fla Keys Man Gets Several Tries to Kill Girlfriend Until He Succeeds

Florida Keys, Florida .- Andrew Beckner, arrested 11 times since 2002 , Beckner's rap sheet includes four arrests for domestic battery, including two on his girlfiend Morgan: one in March and one in May.

Just the night before, deputies had responded to the same residence at South Emerald Drive near mile marker 96.5 of US 1. A caller saw Beckner on the front porch with a gun in his hand. He had been released from jail on Aug. 14.

When deputies arrived Thursday, August 23 2007 Beckner had left but Morgan was there. She told police Beckner had tried to strangle her with a towel but apparently he did not succeed that night and would have to come back the next evening when they were less police around .

Beckner finally got it right, According to the police report when they arrived at 7:30 the next evening the woman Morgan was dead.

Charges are pending

Sources: Miami Herald
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I was going to avoid talking about abuse this weekend and about convicted criminals/abusers being free to roam the land at will , but how can I not talk about it when it's happening all around me and that's all you hear about.

It used to be specialized, child, or elder or gender abuse , now abusers have free lay of the land and if the cops show up, just come back tomorrow to finish the job!

How Worrisome should that be? Police have been trained that until the body is delivered no crime has been committed for a lot of people like Morgan that a little too late. Somehow I feel We let her down , how many times must this story be repeated? We need better coordination with aid agencies , and more aggresive intervention.!

Thad said... Anyway, for anyone who wants more details about the case than what the Miami Herald printed, a more thorough story is located here >>

Thank You Thad

3 comments:

Thad said...

Inasmuch as I agree with you that the system did a horrible job here, if you do a little research you'll find that the girlfriend (the deceased) was far from blameless here. She had a rap sheet too, including an arrest for assault with a deadly weapon and several arrests for drug possession. In addition, when she called police to the home on the previous evening, claiming that Beckner had tried to kill her, she refused to press charges against him. He was reportedly not at the residence at the time, so we must assume that she was of free will to press charges if she had desired. I know, I know... In most cases of abuse, the woman is afraid of what the man might do, but she had her opportunity to put him right back in jail... and she didn't. Don't place the blame on the police here. She could have saved herself... and did not.

Ray said...

Thank you for writing in and bringing up some excellent points, very poor judgment on the part of the victim I'd say. She obviously wasn't thinking clearly, and this happens to a lot of victims who are often afraid.
I do not know of the victim's history but regardless what mistakes in judgment she might have made in the past she didn't deserve ending up this way. According to the report the killer was exhibiting a weapon on the porch the night before, this coupled with the recent attempt to strangle her makes me wonder if the police being little more aggressive in thinking outside the box would have averted this tragedy.
I admire our officers that are out there putting their lives on the line everyday, but after every tragedy there lies a lesson that if properly applied towards a positive change makes the victim's sacrifice not be in vain.

Thad said...

Sorry if I gave the impression that she "deserved it." Certainly no one "deserves it," least of all someone who is justifiably afraid of the person that they live with. And of course her own rap sheet has little (if anything) to do with it, but I was just trying to put things into perspective. Obviously the local cops had reason to be concerned about this guy, given his past actions and the claim that he had tried to kill her, but her refusal to press charges obviously hamstrung what the police could do.

Anyway, for anyone who wants more details about the case than what the Miami Herald printed, a more thorough story is located at: http://www.upperkeysreporter.com/articles/2007/08/26/news/news01.txt