Robby Starbuck is right: We can probably expect this shooting story to disappear quietly into the ether within the week.
Here's what happened:
A 21-year-old convicted felon has killed four victims and wounded three others in a mass shooting at a 21st birthday party in Kentucky before turning the gun on himself.
Police responded to a call just before 3am on Saturday morning for an active shooting situation at a home in Florence, Kentucky, where a group of friends were celebrating a birthday.
A convicted child rapist who should've been in prison killed four people. You have permission to be very angry right now.
Here's why this mass shooting was completely avoidable and should've never happened:
The suspect in the shooting, deceased 21-year-old Chase Garvey, was guilty of "unlawful transaction with a minor" in the second degree stemming from a 2021 incident. He began his probationary sentence in 2022, according to the Kentucky Department of Corrections.
The crime was shocking and disgusting: According to local media reports at the time, Garvey met a 13-year-old girl off of SnapChat and sexually assaulted her in the back seat of his car. He openly admitted to the crime, though as Robby notes, Circuit Judge Kathleen Lape did indeed let him off easy by way of a plea deal. Per local media:
Judge Kathy Lape gave Garvey a five-year suspended sentence, ordered him to stay away from the victim and ordered him to participate in psychological counseling.
It's bad enough that you have a man admitting to the rape of a 13-year-old girl and then walking with a scant five years' worth of probation. I know it's incredible that we should have to explain this to a judge, but: People who do this sort of perverted crime generally aren't reformed by way of a probation sentence. It just doesn't work that way.
What's worse is that Lape had the chance to jail Garvey again after he violated his parole, yet she didn't do it:
The records show he spent 30 days in jail on a probation violation last year. Police said he was caught doing doughnuts in the parking lot of a Dave & Busters with a 13-year-old boy in the passenger seat.
The probation officer noted serious concerns about Garvey's behavior because 'his current case that he is on supervision for also involved a minor in a vehicle in a parking lot.'
Here's the receipt:
So the guy rapes a young girl in a parking lot and walks; violates his parole with another young child in a parking lot and walks; and now four people are dead.
4 killed, three injured, and Garvey ended up shooting himself.
All completely avoidable.
Kinda seems like we should jail people who have sex with kids and commit other awful crimes. Is that too much to ask?
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