Memorial for Student Suspect Killed in Robbery Stirs Criticism
May 10, 2005

by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor

It’s a weird world we live in these days, and it seems to get stranger by the day.

The national and Florida media are putting an unusual twist on the “Castle Bill,” or “force with force” measure that recently enacted in the Sunshine State. Most commentators have twisted the purpose of that law to make it sound like gunowners can shoot anyone, anywhere, anytime they want without cause.

Strange as it may seem, the media’s take on self-defense is not the oddest symptom of our increasingly weirder world.

Niagara Falls, NY, police reported that two suspects displaying a gun, attempted to rob a 54-year-old pizza delivery man at gunpoint at 9:15 p.m. on Apr. 20, according to The Niagara Gazette.

The delivery man pulled out his own licensed .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol and fatally shot one of the suspects. That suspect was later identified as Anthony “Tony” Sheard, a Niagara Falls High School sophomore who would have turned 17 two weeks after the incident.

The second suspect took off on foot. However, The Buffalo News reported that about 4 p.m. on Apr. 21, police arrested Aldeaz M. Lewis, 16, of Niagara Falls, on a charge of second-degree robbery.

The delivery man works for Mr. Ventry’s Pizza, which, according to an employee, had been hit by robberies three times during the month before the shooting.

PPK Look-Alike
“We believe the deliveryman acted in self-defense,” Police Capt. Ernest Palmer told The News. “We know he saw a gun. Later, the gun we found at the scene turned out to be a Walther PPK look-alike gun that was actually a CO2 pellet gun.”

Police did not release the name of the deliveryman, citing fears he could be targeted for retribution.

The deliveryman told police he struggled with the two masked robbers who tackled him in the alleyway near the pizza shop.

“We found mud on his clothes, scrapes on his hands, and the contents of his pockets strewn about” the alleyway, Palmer said.

The deliveryman told The News why he carried a firearm.

“I was robbed three years ago,” he said. “That’s the main reason I bought the gun, but of course I hoped I would never use it. I just feel terrible for that kid’s family.”

According to both The Gazette and The News, word of the death plunged Niagara Falls High School into mourning. By noon the day after the shooting, Sheard’s locker had turned into a makeshift memorial. Students brought cards with messages for their friend and his family.

“We still don’t know a whole lot other than the specifics of what happened,” building administrator Phil Mohr told The News. “Our primary goal was to determine what was true and how to handle students arriving who were very, very upset.”

School officials assembled a crisis intervention team that included administrators, counselors, safety officers and a nurse. The team came up with a plan on how its members were going to greet students coming into school.

“We knew the young man was a very popular student who did well in school, and we had to prepare for the kids who arrived that needed to grieve,” the principal said. “He had a very large circle of friends.”

While police have linked Sheard to gang activity in the past, friends, family and school officials remember a different side of Sheard, The Gazette reported.

Flowers litter the floor around Sheard’s locker located on the fourth floor of Niagara Falls High School. The locker is covered with photographs of Sheard, letters and posters. Messages include “Rest In Peace” and “We Love You.”

Those acts of sympathy may not seem harmful, but some people are taking offense to the school allowing the memorial. Several people called The Gazette’s newsroom on Apr. 22 to voice their displeasure.

“Is this how our great school district treats all of the city’s criminals?” said Rachael Douglas, a Falls resident who said she’s been robbed at knifepoint before. “I’m disgusted that the school is allowing him to be turned into some sort of martyr. They’re putting him on a pedestal for God sakes,” she said, according to The Gazette.

Half-Staff Flag
Others criticized the district for flying the American flag at half-staff, even though they haven’t done so to honor any of the soldiers who have died in Iraq.

The principal told The Gazette that he’s also received calls from angry people regarding the memorial. He pointed out the students have the right to deal with the situation the best they can.

“We’re not building a monument or a shrine,” he said. “Despite what the circumstances are, we’re grieving a child’s death.”

But The Gazette published some reaction from readers about the memorial and the incident. Here are some sample excerpts of unedited reader comments:

“They needed to take this opportunity to show these students that there are consequences to their actions, and if one kid decides to try and rob someone, then he gets whatever he deserves when it goes wrong.”

“Tony was a good friend. Regardless of what he did that caused this to happen, that fact is he’s not coming back. To you people who think he was a criminal, you don’t/didn’t know him. To judge what you don’t know isn’t right. We’re not saying what Tony did was a good thing, because it wasn’t. It was an event that shouldn’t have taken place and someone has met its consequence. And that someone happened to be a loved person by many. If that was your son, or nephew or someone else along those lines, you would better understand. . . . Don’t say that’s like honoring a criminal, say what you want, but nothing changes the love we hold for Tony.”

“I think Tony made a mistake everybody make mistakes we aint perfect he was a cool dude and we always gone miss him.”

More Comments
“I think the kids should put their energy into something more positive like doing something into controlling any violence. Instead of glorifying it, kids are just going to look at it like look how I’m idolized for doing something criminal.”

“If you’re interested in finding out why too few students in today’s public school systems are actually being educated, look no further than the people who run THIS school distinct. They are the prototypes.”

“The students of this school have had a great injustice done to them. Instead of realizing one of their own committed a criminal act for which he paid the ultimate price, they have been deluded into believing the only way to deal with the grief they feel is to honor him with the type of sympathy and mourning usually reserved for our fallen soldiers who actually fight to preserve our way of life. I blame the school system for this travesty. They needed to take this opportunity to show these students that there are consequences to their actions, and if one kid decides to try and rob someone, then he get whatever he deserves when it goes wrong.”

“What kind of message are you sending by letting this memorial in school? I think you are sending the wrong message to the students. This definitely does not belong in school. Is the admin afraid to do the right thing?”

“How about somebody feeling sorry for the pizza deliveryman who had to kill someone defending himself.”

The Gazette published many more comments and posted some on their website, but the sample provides an idea of just how disconnected the public is on such an event. There were even some reports that Mr. Ventry’s had received threats following news of the shooting.

But it is alarming to note that a high school sophomore can be memorialized for getting himself killed while committing a serious crime, even if he only carried an airgun.
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