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Last Edit 6/30/2008 2:23 PM
Inspiration Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, TG Sheppard, Patsy Cline,The O'Jays, The Spinners,
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Child thrown to death on Hawaii freeway
By AUDREY McAVOY, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 11 minutes ago
HONOLULU - The man in hospital scrubs threw the toddler like a doll from a pedestrian overpass to the freeway humming with traffic. The 2 1/2-year-old boy fell 30 feet to the asphalt and was pronounced dead at the scene.
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The horrifying incident Thursday on the highway cutting through the heart of the city shocked Honolulu residents, causing panicked parents to phone day care centers to check on their children.
Police arrested a 23-year-old man they say occasionally baby-sat the child after witnesses saw him throwing something, followed him and called authorities.
Kraig Hengst told The Honolulu Advertiser he was working in an apartment garage across the street from the overpass when he saw a man "toss the baby" at about 11:40 a.m.
"I saw the baby high in the air. I thought it was a doll at first," Hengst said. The man held the child in one arm and "tossed it into the air," he said.
One or two vehicles may have struck the boy, but it was unclear exactly what killed him, the newspaper reported.
A white sheet covered the body on the westbound lanes of the H-1 freeway, a major route through downtown that police temporarily closed. The scene was just blocks from the Capitol and the governor's mansion.
The man, who was wearing green hospital scrubs, was taken to the police station and then to a hospital, said police spokeswoman Michelle Yu. She didn't know whether he had a history of mental illness or a criminal record.
"That will be part of the investigation," Yu said.
The suspect screamed "Thank you for everything" to television crews as he was escorted to a cell block. While in a police car, he rocked back and forth in the back seat.
The Queen's Medical Center, the nearest facility with a mental health wing, declined to say whether the man was or had been a patient. But spokeswoman Rebecca Pollard said that no patients were missing Thursday and that none had been discharged in an unstable condition.
Johnnie Bruen told KITV that the man calmly walked away from the overpass after dropping the child. Bruen later chased the man up a hill among houses and low-rise apartment buildings near the freeway.
"He didn't say anything, he didn't scream; he looked like a normal person standing there smoking a cigarette, except that he had on a smock," Bruen said. "That's just a horrible sight that I seen down there, for any man to do that to a child."
Hedy Chun, director of a nearby preschool, Kamaaina Kids Honolulu, said 10 to 15 parents called to check on their children. All students were safe, she said, but her staff was shocked.
Gov. Linda Lingle, told of the incident shortly after it happened, called it a "real tragedy."
Record Label Spring Mill Records
biography
Jimmy Browder grew up in a rural and small town community in Indiana. He speaks about growing up poor in Indiana. "We were so poor that even the poor kids made fun of us," says Jimmy Browder.
His Dad began teaching him how to play the guitar when he was nine years old. He said he learned to write poetry and songs by reading books by Rod McKuen, while growing up.
Jimmy has spent the last 5 years battling terminal hodgkins lymphoma cancer. He says it has been the longest battle of his life, however, since doing only natural treatment and no conventional treatments, his progress has been remarkable. At several points through his treatment, the Practitioners and Doctor expected him to lose the battle. His desire to live and fulfill his goals and dreams have kept him going.
In October 1990, Jimmy went to Nashville to pursue a songwriting career. Ten days after arriving there he was run over by a truck crossing a busy downtown street. The doctor assured his family that even though he was living after the critical brain surgeries, he would not stay alive. The brain injuries were too critical to survive. Two weeks later his family took him home with them to Indiana where he would have to live again. "When I got to where I could hold a guitar in my hands, I would sit on my brothers porch and play the guitar all day long, for days on end," says Browder. Two years later he returned to Texas where his sons were, and he resides there today.
Jimmy and his many brothers and sisters learned by living in fear, about child abuse. "I remember one Saturday night when I was thirteen, that my Dad lost his temper and forced a butcher knife, with both hands against my 15 year old sisters throat.I was so frightened. I just watched for her head to come off and fall to the floor, says Jimmy. I was sure he would kill her. Then, once when Dad and Mom were walking home from a function at the church, we ran and told on one of my brothers. Dad got him on the floor and tried to cut his throat with his pocket knife. We all jumped on his back and started pounding on him. One day when Dad went in a rage he hit me in the back with a claw hammer and broke the door to my bedroom to pieces, trying to get to me with that hammer. I had to jump out the window and run away to safety. Yes, I'm no stranger to child abuse," says Browder, "at times those scenes play over and over in my mind. I hope and pray that my "Scarred For Life" project will help parents realize that child abuse scars their children forever. It scars them for life!"
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