Couple in jail; pointed gun at YMCA activity bus, police say
Brain Phillip Stephenson and Patricia Edwards Murray alledgedly pointed a gun at a busload of children in Sandston.
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By Bill McKelway
Published: December 16, 2008
A Highland Springs couple remained in Henrico County jail tonight, arrested on multiple firearms and neglect charges after allegedly taking turns pointing a handgun at a busload of elementary school students.
Patricia Edwards Murray, 26, and Brain Phillip Stephenson, 36, both of the 200 block of Mapleleaf Avenue, face hearings March 9 on a total of 13 charges, six of them felonies dealing with reckless disregard for a child.
Among the targeted children was Murray’s 9-year-old daughter, police said.
She and as many as nine other students on an after-school YMCA activity bus allegedly witnessed the couple pointing a .40-caliber handgun at them as the couple followed the bus toward the Chickahominy Family YMCA in Sandston yesterday afternoon.
Henrico Police spokesman Lt. Doug Perry said Murray and Stephenson are engaged and had apparently been provoked by gestures some of the children were making at them from the rear of the bus.
“She pointed the gun and then handed it over to him,“ Perry said. The bus carried some 36 children in all.
The bus driver notified officials at the YMCA, who notified police.
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( Fair Play ) on December 22, 2008 at 10:13 pm
I’m reading this from the UK - check out http://www.fairplayforchildren.org for where I’m coming from. I speak personally, as a father and grandfather. It occurs to me - when I was a kid, we also used to make rude signs from the back of a bus to people in cars behind us. What’s new? It’s no great crime, just naughty kids. Over 30 years working with kids here, I have noticed how intolerant many adults are about children, the least excuse. Often I see adult behaviour transferred to the next generation. You only get respect if you give it first. No child owes that to you if you don’t show it to the child. Remember leading by example? I also find myself wondering how you think these two folk have to be on crack or similar? Believe me, I have seen supposedly respectable adults completely lose their cool with kids - and I was told recently by a leading rights campaigner here she gets more hate email when she speaks up for rights for kids than when she defends terrorists rights .... Finally, it’s your country. But we’re OK in the UK when we need to bear arms to defend our rights, and we stand by our friends, but we don’t need to keep guns at home. Our cops mainly do without. Think about it. They couldn’t have so easily taken out a gun and waved it about if it was so much harder to get one ....
“let’s Make the World Fit for All Our Children to Play in”
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Posted by ( tina ) on December 18, 2008 at 10:28 am
I applaud parents who teach their children good manners and values, regardless of their personal challenges. It is obvious that the children on this bus have learned from their parents. The couple in this article need professional counseling, and most likely drug intervention. We hope they get this in jail, which is provided FREE. Let’s keep in mind that jail time is short term. They will get out, right back into the same community, raising children who we hope will not follow their parents example. The question is, what will the rest of the community do to protect their children from crackhead neighbors?
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Posted by ( DeeDee511 ) on December 16, 2008 at 8:43 pm
My hope is that every parent that reads this article shares it with his/her children, seriously this is the kind of story that urban legends start from… life lessons and stuff.
Now back to the adults.. and YES I’m gonna call them adults because they’ve had 18th birthdays. None of us know the state of mind they were in. Could have lost custody of a kid, mom dies, dog got hit by a car… whatever, NONE OF US KNOW!!!!! AM I saying they had GOOD REASON, HECK NO! There is no good reason to wave a gun at a child or group of children, but Brain and Patricia are humans and they make mistakes. I guarantee every single person reading this article has made stupid mistakes. I’m sure not the same mistake, but certainly something just as stupid! However maybe you were caught maybe you weren’t. The reality the worst didn’t happen, so we cant prosecute them for what COULD have happened. All we can do now is be GRATEFUL that the kids are all well… EDUCATE our own children, and PRAY for these families.
What they did was stupid as God knows what…. but there are folks walking around free that have done worse and since Patricia does have kids. I just pray that she spends Christmas with her kids!
Lots of families have been effected, the pure fact that her daughter was on the bus… honestly guys we all know she wasn’t gonna shoot. Let’s call this what it is… STUPIDITY! If I had to serve time for every stupid thing I did. I’d be serving life in jail. I’m sure most of us can stay that. Me personally, I don’t own a gun, but I have made bad judgment calls, and yes some were even illegal. By God’s grace I wasn’t caught. They were caught, their faces splashed all over the Web, e-mails were forwarded everything. It is up to the courts now, I just hope justice is given fairly where both sides will feel it was acceptable. So we can sleep another night.
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Posted by ( kjcgrep ) on December 16, 2008 at 7:42 pm
To those that feel like the kids should even remotely be apart of the equation you your selves should have your heads checked before opening up on your opinions towards the two accused “people” ( I will not use the words adults).
Are we forgetting that two people pulled a gun out on a bus full of children? Are we not understanding that not only those that provoked the situation could have been harmed but also others that were sharing both the bus and road way as well were put into harms way? There is no way anyone in here could say with a straight face that if worst would have come out of this situation that you could go to that childs parent and say “because of your childs actions, this happened today”. Children are going to be just that children; and unless they were throwing objects from the bus that would cause harm or damage, I can’t see a responsible adult even paying that much attention let alone finding enough time to pull out a fire arm. I do agree that todays youth need guidance and a little more discipline in this generation, but to say that a 7-9 year old needs to experience a gun being waved at them, at their place of security and comfort is far fetched to say the least. I am not a parent and I don’t have any kids but I can honestly say that no child or parent should have to go through what these two cowards have put these people through.This is a prime example of two people trying to display what they want to be (tough guys) but instead it really showed what you are (cowards). Lets be thankful that these kids will be able to spend the holidays with their families instead of worst. The law will sort out the rest. It is bad enough worrying about the economy and other things bad that are going on in the world today. But now having to worry about your child being safe on the school bus going to an afterschool program where you send them to keep them off of the streets is a whole other issue.
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Posted by ( Larry Lanberg ) on December 16, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Ok, perhaps the 2 arrested adults are crack heads & are stupid. So what do you expect—dignity & grace? Somewhere along the line, someone might want to teach children not to flip-off crazed crack heads! Also teach them manners period.
The solution most people want here is to throw all these moron crack heads in prison. Ok, fine…but then what are we left with? Kids who continue to flip middle fingers from school buses!!! Nothing is really solved then.
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Posted by ( drseth ) on December 16, 2008 at 6:44 pm
I don’t care what the kids on the bus gestured or yelled at these folks, for an adult to pull out a gun on kids, they must be on crack or something. What were they thinking??????
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Posted by ( bigmister63 ) on December 16, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Is dude’s name really “Brain”? It’s listed that way in the article and photo caption. If so that is funny on several levels. Someone should be arrested for that.
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Posted by ( the1nonlyme86 ) on December 16, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Yes, the kids definitely do need to be disciplined. They need to learn that there are consequences to their actions, and as they get older, people are not going to react the same way. People in today’s society are crazy. They will shoot you over just looking at them the wrong way. This type of behavior needs to be stopped now before they get older and it esculates.
Look at it from this view though. The woman that initially flashed the gun, had a child on that bus. So you can only imagine what they are teaching their daughter at home and what she sees. The same goes for the children that were making the gestures. Who knows what type of home training they have. Obviously not much. The problem here is a lot deeper than just the kids need disciplined at school. What good is discpline if all they see is ignorant behavior at home.
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Posted by ( tripower ) on December 16, 2008 at 5:37 pm
To those who keep referring to these two morons as adults, please define “adult”. Anyone who points a gun at ANYONE in order to scare them, much less a child needs to get their head checked. Kids need to be talked to when they behave inappropriately. “Adults” need to go to jail when they behave criminally.
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Posted by ( Susan1952 ) on December 16, 2008 at 5:34 pm
I can’t believe how all of you are sounding. This is what the problem is now everybody has a temper and go off and thats how people get hurt. Dumb on the kids part but they are kids, dumber on the people who got angry enough to pull or flash a gun, dumbest on the outraged parents who blame everyone but their children who should not disrespect and shame on the so called people who pulled the gun. People are killed over anger and stupid stuff everyday and now our 8 & 9 yr old children are so disrespectful that they need to be punished also. The problem in this world is the court took out the authority to correct our children and the schools teaches them that so they more or less do what they want. But this does not excuse anyone to pull a gun on a child. NO EXCUSE. But what a big man he was to let a 9 yr old pull his strings enough to pull that gun. That is the scary part and for parents to go off the way they have is also scary because more problems occur and someone could get hurt and lots of regrets. SO everyone needs to calm down and let the courts handle it. I am a mother of 3 and grandmother and I will be the first to defend my children but I will not go off the deep end and get them or myself hurt for no reason. Wake up everyone and think about your actions and comments and stop all the anger and problems in the world today.
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