Twenty-One Minutes

Near the Site of Rainbow Village

Reading through various documents yesterday I wanted to refresh my memory, and they reminded me of how imprecise the timeline I've given is. For example, to fit Jim Prew's account of when the party at his van ended (0200-0225) with Vincent Johnson's account of seeing Thomas with Mary and Greg, I've assumed that this encounter took place around 0230. I've assumed that it would have taken about 5-10 minutes for Johnson to ride with his friend down to University Avenue and that it would have taken him about 15-20 minutes to walk the distance between University Avenue and the entrance to the dump. I've assumed that Mary and Greg left the Village immediately after leaving the Prew’s van and that Thomas caught up with them before they walked by Cercy's car. Had they not stopped at the car, it would have probably taken them about 8-10 minutes to walk down to the dump entrance so I’m assuming it probably took them about 15 minutes to get to the entrance.

Johnson testified that Thomas looked angry stared off into space, and this gives me the impression that Johnson’s passing by interrupted an exchange that had probably been ongoing since the three left Cercy’s vehicle. At one time I’d thought that Johnson’s appearance had angered Thomas; now I strongly believe he was already angry when Johnson walked by sometime around 0230.

So Johnson kept walking and it probably took him about ten minutes to get back to the Village and his bus. How long did it take Thomas to decide to return to the Village to get his gun? Did he wait until he thought Johnson had made it back home before he left Mary and Greg? Or was he so angry that he didn’t think about Johnson before returning to his vehicle?

It would have taken him about eight minutes to return to the Village and another eight minutes to make his way back to where he expected to find them. Let’s assume it took him five minutes to grab the rifle and some ammunition out of the plastic container, so 21 minutes could have elapsed between the time Thomas leaves them and returns. My guess is that he was in a hurray because he wanted to catch them before they decided to return to the Village, so it may have taken him less than 21 minutes to return. He was seething…at being called out by what he may have thought of as two privileged white kids* slumming it with homeless folks…and the anger continued to build and build until it drove him to attack them viciously and then shoot them.

*Here I think it’s important to remind readers of a distinction Kevin Fagan made between ‘real homelessness’ and ‘chosen homelessness.’ I’d include Greg and Mary among those who’d chosen homelessness and who were availing themselves of resources available to the homeless, such as soup kitchens. I’d include Ralph Thomas among the ‘real homeless’ because he was living and had been living under desperate conditions since he was young. See my previous post Aletheia (Or Verity by Another Name)

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