Individualistic World

A surveillance camera captures the suspect walking away from the scene with a pipe in his right hand. Photo Source: Internet.

In Queens, New York, Yao Yu, 23, from China, was walking home from grocery shopping at 9.30pm last May 15 when a Mexican man smashed her in the head with a pipe and dragged her into an alley.

Once inside, Carlos Salazar Cruz, 28, removed Yao's clothing and raped her.
She has been warded at the Intensive Care Unit of New York Hospital Queens for a fractured skull, bleeding on the brain and trauma to her vaginal area.
She was on life-support after being attacked and raped by a pipe-wielding rapist in New York. Officials made arrangement for her mother to go to the United States to decide on the daughter's fate, but Yao Yu died 5 days later.

The mother's pain and sorrow filled the Flushing's mostly Mandarin  funeral  home as the daughter was laid to rest. She did not leave her daughter's side during the open funeral. She would not let go of her daughter's hand and she kept fixing her hair and making sure her daughter looks good.
Mother Guihua Yu had to be carried out behind her daughter's casket.

Not many who attended Thursday's service actually knew the 23-year-old, but knowing the attack happened in their neighborhood.
Yao's father was too sick to fly in for the funeral but requested his daughter be brought back to China.
Yao's mother will bring her only daughter home in an urn, after she's cremated in New York.

Yao, whose ambition then was to become a lawyer, arrived in New York two months ago, using money that her parents borrowed. Her parents wanted her to expand her horizons as she has good grades in China.
She worked in a nail salon to save up money for her studies.

A surveillance camera has captured several people walked pass the place where the attack took place but no one helped to stop the man while another camera caught the suspect walking away from the scene with a pipe in his hand.
The weapon was later thrown into some bushes.

Police arrested Cruz, who worked at a Manhattan fish market, a few blocks from the crime scene after a witness called 911.He was charged on Tuesday.
It took several court officers to control the mother, Guihua Yu, as she faced her daughter's alleged killer in court. For now, 28-year-old Cruz is charged with attempted murder and aggravated sex abuse.
The charges are expected to be upgraded.

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In Queens too, a good samaritan, who was seriously injured after rescuing a woman from an armed thug, was left to die on the streets of New York.

A surveillance camera had captured 25 people walking past the man but none of them lent a helping hand or called the police. One of the passers-by even stopped to snap a photo of the dying man and went off, New York Post reported.

Odd-job worker Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax, a 32-year-old Guatemala immigrant, was out of work and had recently lost his home.

According to the video  footage,  Tale-Yax went to a woman's aid upon seeing that she was threatened by a knife-wielding man, on a sidewalk in Queens County of the metropolitan at about 5.40am on April 18.
He was then stabbed repeatedly in the chest by the armed man, who fled the scene soon after.
The woman, whom Tale-Yax had helped, ignored her injured hero and ran away.

Tale-Yax was seen making a few steps before collapsing onto the ground.
Police said they were only informed of the incident at 7.23am the same day but Tale-Yax had died.

Tale-Yax's relatives had condemned the cold-hearted pedestrians for being so callous. His cousin, Edwin Tacam said Hugo lost his life trying to help someone else. He's a brave hero.

Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax his wake Wednesday, April 28, 2010 in New York.

The Crime Story - Their Darkest Hours

Her facial expression revealed the excruciating pain she's bearing.
I asked her why?
She said she was locking the door to her flat when came a young man from nowhere, knocking her head with a motorcycle helmet and grabbed her handbag.
He walked away along the dark corridor...

The lights were all there.
So, was the then-flat in the middle of JB town took part in the 60-minutes 'Earth Hour'?
'Earth Hour' or not, the lights that's supposed to light-up corridors were simply not working since ages, as far as she could remember.

Fatmah, the single woman in her 50s I supposed, said, luck was still on her side as she was just about to put her house keys in her bag when one of  'the darkest episode' in her life took place.
Feeling dizzy with blood oozing out from the back of her head, she scrambled, unlocking her house, and rested in her house with more fear she felt than the excruciating pain she endured - her head injury needed 6 stitches.

She made a police report.
To her surprise, the police officer was not convinced with her story - Even with the stitches on the rear of her head as prove.
Reason?
No witness to verify her story...

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We were on our way to Gazebo, our usual dinner place when, from far, a girl was seen having a 'misunderstanding' with his boyfriend - the boy was on motorbike.

The scene was outside one of the gated terrace-houses in Taman Suria, about 500 metres from Giant Supermarket.
The dark, quiet lanes that enveloped the neighbourhood made me think that the girl was outside her house, meeting her boyfriend, without her parents' knowledge - but as we travelled nearer to them, there's not one, but two boys on the bike.

The pillon-rider was pulling away the girl's sling-bag from her and she struggled hard to save it.
Alas, the sling snapped and the boys sped away with their prey, the girl's sling-bag.
I tried to memorise the number on their licence-plate, but the bike was without lights. They knew we gave chase as we gave signal to another bike-rider about the snatch-theft, but as we approached Larkin Perdana, there's red light ahead.
Our chase stopped there as the thieves raced across the red-light.

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Plunged into darkness or broad daylight, brave individuals put their 'wave of hope and action' into full practice.

It was about 5pm when outside the then temporary police station at Christine Place, traffic was understandably slow as thousands of workers were heading home from their day job across the Causeway.

In the midst of the chaotic road, I thought a drama or film-shooting was taking place.
A Chinese man was asked to alight from his motorcycle, stranding the motorcycle at the roadside. He was bundled into a car by 2 men - vehicles were redirected to the first and second lane.
The car was on the third lane. It was heading towards the flyover - and we trailed behind the car as we were on our way west of town.
Once the car was on the flyover, it turned left, and zoomed away...

My Husband and I realised, we were the only two other souls, beside the men in the car that were on the deserted flyover.
A real-life kidnap drama had taken place in broad day-light, amidst the busy road, just outside...

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As cities, towns and countries worldwide plunged into darkness to bring awareness and meaningful action of changes, what is darkness to these people and many others?
Although the cause may differ, these people, and many others, hope rays of light may shine, sincerity and responsiblity will be held high.