The Real Angel of Cleveland

A less dynamic, non-English speaker may be one of the forgotten heroes of the Cleveland rescue. The focus of the viral interview of Charles Ramsey is beginning to crumble around the edges. But will any of this be remembered beyond today, in the wake of stories of chains, five pregnancies, torture, and other sickening violence? (The graphic breaking details from reporter Michael Baldwin's interviews are spreading today, and sweeping away initial "discovery" details.)

The English-speaking media darling of the Cleveland rescue is only a human being.

The highlighting of the melodramatic Ramsey interview on video, of McDonald's and visual imagery, may be ignoring the reality of what happened. First off, Charles Ramsey's newly revealed criminal record is not doing him any good. As Smoking Gun and other sources are noting, in January 2003, Ramsey allegedly was arrested for the second time for domestic violence and served time in the Lorain, Ohio, Correctional Institution. Yes, Lorain.

Lorain Correctional mugshot of Charles Ramsey.

Ramsey had been incarcerated in Lorain, also in the early 1990s for drug abuse and other minor crimes. Lorain Avenue, as previously noted, was the site of the Knight, Berry, and DeJesus kidnappings.

There is "profiling" that needs to take place sometimes - of patterns in kidnappings, in appearances, in name links, in location overlaps. Not all "profiling" is inappropriate, of course.

Michelle Knight (note headband)

 Gina DeJesus (note headband)

 Amanda Berry (note headband)

It appears another man - Angel Cordero - may have actually and initially been the one to have noticed Amanda Berry's shouts, to have arranged her escape, and to have handed her a cellphone for that dramatic oft-heard 911 call. Listening closely to Ramsey's interviews, you will note he says "we," but never named Cordero.

Angel Cordero's name is literally an angelic name game. 

Angel (from the Greek ἄγγελος - ángelos) is a supernatural being or spirit, usually humanoid in form, found in various religions and mythologies.

Cordero derives from the Latin cordus meaning "young" plus "aries" - the ram, and the translation is "the little lamb" or the "young ram," or even possibly the "son of the ram." There are claims that the name is a descriptive metonymic for a shepherd, and this is a possibility, except that usually shepherds look after all the sheep, not just the young lambs as suggested by the name. 

Cordero-named individuals have, within their name, an acknowledgement of shepherding the young innocents, metaphorically, the lambs. Add "angel" and that's is a rather powerful name.

"I kicked the door at the bottom because I was trying to get it open because it was too hard so I got it at the bottom and that's when Amanda ran out of the house," said Angel Cordero through a translator.

Fox 8 noted:

"I was the first person who broke the door,” said Angel Cordero, 32.
In Spanish, Cordero said he was the first person to break down the door to rescue the three missing women from the home on Seymour Avenue Monday afternoon.
Cordero said he was at a friend’s house right across the street when he heard Amanda Berry, 27, screaming for help and trying to escape.
“I crossed the street and I asked the girl what was happening and she told me that she’s been kidnapped for 10 years. We tried together to open the door but it was locked with a chain and the door didn’t open much so I kicked the door open,” Cordero explained.
Cordero says he, Charles Ramsey and other neighbors helped the women escape from the house, then got Berry to a phone so she could call police.

But Cordero is one who is not upset that Ramsey is getting most of the credit. He doesn't feel like a hero.

“I feel normal. I did something I needed to do. A big, important favor,” said Cordero to Fox 8. 

Angel Cordero (pictured) says that he does not harbor any resentment or jealousy toward Charles Ramsey, as long as the women he helped rescue from the home are okay.

WPTV reported on Cordero and the involvement of another man, Wintel Tejeda:

“Ramsey arrived after she was outside with the girl,” Cordero said. “But the truth who arrived there, who crossed the street, who came and broke the door, it was me.”
Wintel Tejeda, who lives across the street from the suspect’s house, said others helped and when Berry came out, they gave her a phone.
“She was able to call police from my house,” Tejeda said in Spanish.
Now with Ramsey’s interview making headlines, both men said they’re not jealous.
“I did what had to be done. I helped her,” Cordero said. “They have their daughter, daughters are safe over there.”

The names Tejeda, Tejada are derivatives of "Tejado" meaning tile, and originally meant the place of the tile roofs, or the place where tiles were made. "Teja" means "(roof) tile" or "lime tree."

Hat tips to Dave McM + RPJ.

Alabama Mass Violence: 9 Dead

Five new shooting deaths were discovered in rural Alabama, April 7, 2009, which follow in the wake of the stabbing deaths of four people in a home in Hueytown, near Birmingham, on March 7, and the shooting spree deaths of 10 people on March 10 by a gunman in south Alabama who also took his own life.

One question I have: Has the media decided that everyone wishes to read indepth details about every new murder-suicide that occurs?

Events like this happened in the past routinely, quietly and locally, but now each one has been elevated to a national story. As a demonstration of this, I reprint the following example.

The Associated Press covered this expanded domestic violence incident today from near Priceville, Alabama:

A man facing a divorce trial shot and killed his estranged wife, their teenage daughter and two other relatives in rural north Alabama before returning to his home in a nearby town and killing himself, authorities said Tuesday [April 7, 2009].

Kevin Garner's body was found Tuesday afternoon near his Priceville home, which burned to the ground overnight. His divorce trial was to start Wednesday [April 8, 2009].

Garner apparently shot himself in the chest, said Travis Clemmons, chief investigator for the sheriff's office in Lauderdale County, where the four bodies were found earlier in the day in a home in Green Hill, a small community near the Tennessee line.

The victims were identified as Garner's estranged wife, Tammy, 40; their 16-year-old daughter, Chelsie; Garner's sister, Karen Beaty of Illinois; and Beaty's 11-year-old son, whose name was not released.

Investigators said the four were shot, apparently with a handgun, around midnight Monday. They did not know if Kevin Garner was licensed to carry a firearm.

It was one of eight mass shootings around the country and the third in Alabama in the last month that have left grief-stricken communities in shock.

Clemmons said a neighbor visiting the Green Hill house Tuesday morning saw a body through the door and called authorities.

Court officials said the Garners were in court Monday in advance of the trial and nothing seemed unusual.

"I just can't understand it," said Clemmons, "and with a 16-year-old and an 11-year-old kid, there's nothing rational about it."

In the divorce file, Tammy Garner sought custody of their daughter and alleged that her husband "has been both physically and emotionally abusive."

Kevin Garner accused her of adultery and of taking $38,000 out of their joint bank account when they separated May 27.

Michael Corley, chief deputy in Morgan County, where Garner's body was found, said Beaty and her son might have been on the witness list for the divorce case. He said investigators believe Garner was "unhappy" with proceedings and "after court adjourned it appears he set some of his plans in motion."

He said it appears the divorce was filed about a year ago but was just now coming up on the court docket.

"Now that we know the final end of it all it's just going back and putting the pieces together," Corley said. "We feel like this was solely a homicide, that he killed them, then went to the home. He used some type of accelerant that caused the home to burn very, very quickly, then walked about 200 yards back into a wooded area behind the house and took his life."

Jerry Knight, an attorney who represented Kevin Garner in the divorce case, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that Garner "had a terrific work ethic and value system. I was terribly shocked and saddened by this unexpected tragedy."

Kevin Garner had worked at a Decatur chemical plant and Tammy Garner at a Huntsville department store.

Along with Garner's two-story house, which collapsed in the fire, a green Subaru Legacy belonging to Tammy Garner was found burned in the Morgan County community of Somerville, less than 10 miles from the burned house.

by Jay Reeves