15-year-old uses Facebook to summon police

[ty]

digitallife.today.com/_news/2011/03/17/6289457-15-year-old-uses-facebook-to-summon-police

By Helen A.S. Popkin

Afraid his mother's boyfriend would overhear him, a 15-year-old boy used his cell phone to answer his mother's cry for help — by posting on his Facebook page.

"Would somebody please call 911 — my mom's boyfriend won't let her use the phone," the boy posted at 2 a.m. Friday, March 11. Accidentally attaching smiley-face emoticons to the first post, he deleted them and added "This is serious," reports the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

The boyfriend, Reggie Hart, 31, was arrested and charged with domestic assault and interference with a 911 call after one of the boy's friends saw the post and called the police.

According to the criminal complaint, the boy's mother, Kelly Heinl, 33, was out with friends when Hart "tracked her down and forced her to come home." The boy heard his mother crying when she and Hart pulled up in the driveway and continued crying once they were in the house. Heinl showed her son a clump of hair she said Hart pulled from her head, and the boy reportedly saw Hart push his mother to the bed.

After Heinl asked her son to call for help, Hart took away their cell phones. The boy, however, convinced Hart he needed to charge his phone for school the following day, even though it was a Friday night. Out of Hart's view, he used his cell phone to post his call for help on Facebook.

"I'm very proud of him," Heinl told the Pioneer Press. "I don't know that I would necessarily have thought of that."

Following the Friday incident, Heinl said she broke off the relationship with Hart.

Hart previously served 8 years for the 1998 murder of his cousin, Willie Campbell. (Campbell was the father of the boy who posted on Facebook.) The murder was "allegedly triggered after Hart heard that Campbell had beaten up their grandmother," the Pioneer Press reports. In 2009, Hart was convicted of felony domestic assault involving another woman.

A St. Paul police spokesman told the Pioneer Press that calling 911 is "the most efficient way" to get help in an emergency" but said "people should use any available resource to get help."

For domestic violence help and resources, see the Domestic Violence Hotline website or call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233).

[Angel!]

Why is the mother dating the guy that killed the father 12 years earlier? Why would you date someone that was convicted of murder & felony domestic assault?

Sorry, but someone should have seen this coming. I feel sorry for the kid. I am glad he was smart enough to get help, but why is she putting her child through this. Sad.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

This is one stupid broad. After this dude kills the father of her son and does 8 years (why??? are we letting a MURDERER out of jail after just 8 years???) in prison, now he's the "boyfriend"? The boy is 15 years old, the guy is lucky said boy doesn't kill him in his sleep. He killed the boy's dad.

[Shirina]

My guess is that it was a relationship formed from intimidation and fear. It is quite possible that this man was holding both mother and son as emotional hostages, if you will. A person capable of murder would be a difficult person to stand up to.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Mar 20, 2011 4:05:06 GMT -5 Shirina said:

My guess is that it was a relationship formed from intimidation and fear. It is quite possible that this man was holding both mother and son as emotional hostages, if you will. A person capable of murder would be a difficult person to stand up to.

How, pray tell, did he "intimidate" her from behind bars? Gimme a break. She had 8 years to get away. She's either mentally incapacitated in which case I do feel sorry for her, or she's stupid. If it isn't the former, then there's no excusing the latter.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Mar 20, 2011 6:53:07 GMT -5 Lady Gaga Gaga Snerd said:

Yes, it is easy to lay the blame on the mother. But, those can be very difficult circumstances. Let's lay the blame for criminal behavior at the feet of the criminals.

You can do as you please, I'm personally raising my daughter not to be a victim. Because, you know, sometimes it IS actually the fault of the victim. You don't open the door for criminals. And when you're within striking distance of the person that killed the father of your child, you do what you're supposed to do.

[Angel!]

Mar 20, 2011 9:43:35 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

You can do as you please, I'm personally raising my daughter not to be a victim.

Good for you WCP. One of the best things you can ever do for your daughter is give her enough self esteem so she won't feel like she has to stay with a loser, or the loser is all she deserves. Then give her the tools to live independently so that she never feels she is trapped because she has no way to earn income/pay bills/raise kids, etc on her own.

Yes, women do get trapped. There is a emotional aspect & you become used to the abuse. But, there are things women can do to get away. There are reasons that some women just get hit once & other women stay with their abusers for decades.

You can't blame the women, but you can look at her & feel sorry that she isn't stronger & smarter to be able to see the relationship for what it is & be able to get out.

And in this case, I would at least somewhat blame the women for getting involved with the guy who murdered her son's father Maybe she was already involved & dad was no longer in the romantic picture. But, she had 8 years to get her life together & break contact with the guy. If not for herself, then for her son. What kind of role model is this guy & what kind of message is she sending her son by being involved with him?

[marjar]

Being a victim can also be a learned experience. If a girls grows up in a home where the father figure is intimidating and the mother a victim, she may "absorb" some of those traits.