A Barbaric ‘Loyalty’

Some of the outrage over the murder of 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson in a Nevada casino in May 1997 was reserved for her father, who gambled the wee hours away as Sherrice was occasionally watched by her juvenile half brother. Times reporter Nora Zamichow’s Sunday story on the murder and its aftermath shows that the outrage needs to be spread around to a few more people.

By now, you probably know the story: the child found dead, stuffed into a casino restroom toilet; the broadcast of a surveillance camera tape of two youths near the scene at the time of the murder; the subsequent arrest of Jeremy Strohmeyer, then 18, who has pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder.

This piece isn’t about Strohmeyer, the alleged killer, but about some of his friends and classmates.

The proper reaction in such a situation is pretty straightforward. The fellow on the surveillance tape on the evening news looks like someone you know. There’s a sick feeling in your gut about that little girl and how she died. You tell your parents or call the police, or both, and pray that you’re wrong.

Not these kids. They had flimsy, self-serving excuses for not telling their parents. One after the other said there was no way they would have called the police, as if this had been some defensible adolescent male loyalty thing involving a minor transgression. It wasn’t; it was murder. And there seemed to be not an ounce of compassion for the dead child. The youth with Strohmeyer at the casino says the incident has helped his popularity with girls.

More angst has been shown for a dog run over in the street. Just one of the teenagers, Agnes Oak Lee, shocked by the incident, tossed loyalty aside and told her parents, who then notified the police.

Jeremy Strohmeyer will have his day in court. The other teenagers face the court of public opinion and human civility. Only Agnes Lee should emerge from that scrutiny unscathed.