The Nathan Trapuzzano Execution: When Turning the Other Cheek and Forgiveness Gave Way to... Something Else

Out of respect, this wasn't posted yesterday. 

It was Sunday. 

His wife is a widow; his unborn child fatherless...

The homicide of Nathan Trapuzzano, a white, 24-year-old husband and father-to-be in Indianapolis, by two (race as of yet undetermined) people, represents the type of story that should motivate sheer, rational hatred. 

Hatred. 

A guy, who just by reading about him, you realize represents the type of individual you'd want as a neighbor. 

A workout partner. 

A best friend you've known since elementary school. 

A brother. 

Here's the difference between the white community and the black community: if the people who murdered Nathan are white, not one person will defend these hypothetical scum. 

No one will be quoted as saying, "They were such good boys who had so much potential."

The same can't be said of the black community, with a hypothetical black mother declaring the accused murderer of Trapuzzano was a "good kid trying to turn his life around... after all, he went to church every Sunday."

No one in the white community would protect the scum who killed Trapuzzano, with 'no snitching' a two-word phrase completely alien to this "square" group of people (save the mafia...); the same can't be said of the black community. 

It's practically a mantra. 

Which is why this story was so hard to read. [Forgiveness is theme at shooting victim's funeral, Indy Star, 4-5-14]:

As the choir sang, the unmistakeable sound of sobbing cut in and out, rising above the music Saturday morning in the crowded sanctuary at Holy Rosary Catholic Church.

Shooting victim Nathan Trapuzzano's widow, Jennifer, was consoled and supported by family members as she cried throughout her husband's funeral mass.

The Rev. Christopher Roberts, who met Trapuzzano while he was attending Ball State University, was the priest at the couple's wedding last year. Saturday, he had the solemn duty of speaking during Trapuzzano's funeral service.

While the grief at Trapuzzano's funeral was palpable, Roberts urged mourners to make forgiveness the focus of the day.

Trapuzzano, a 24-year-old computer programmer, and his wife were expecting a baby — a daughter to be named Cecilia — who is due in May. But the life of the young father-to-be was cut tragically short when he was gunned down for no apparent reason early Tuesday on the Westside.

Trapuzanno was out on his usual morning walk, heading east on 16th Street not far from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, when he was attacked by two men, one of whom appeared to act as a lookout while the other forced Trapuzzano between two businesses. Trapuzzano and one of the suspects engaged in a struggle, during which Trapuzzano was shot in the abdomen.

In the wake of Trapuzzano's slaying, Roberts said mourners could easily choose to focus on stories about his love for his wife and unborn daughter, his intelligence or his "deceivingly keen sense of humor."

Instead, Roberts encouraged them to instead focus on forgiveness.

It's what Trapuzzano would have wanted, he said, citing what he thinks Trapuzzano's last thoughts might have been.

"I have no doubt that Nathan forgave his murderers," Roberts said. "That was the type of man that I knew him to be."

Trapuzzano's capacity for love and forgiveness is just one of the virtues that Roberts and others who knew him have praised.

 Turning the other cheek.

Nathan Trapuzzano is still dead.

His wife is a widow.

The most powerful scene in movie history... it speaks volumes about life in Black-Run America (BRA)

His unborn child will come into this world, fatherless.

And speculation from one of the world's best resources, The Daily Mail, is Trapuzzano was murdered in a gang initiation. [Good Samaritan who tried to save newlywed Nathan Trapuzzano, 24, who was shot on his morning walk claims attack was part of a senseless gang initiation, Daily Mail, 4-7-14]:

A Good Samaritan who desperately tried to save a young newly wed after he was gunned down has relived his dying moments and revealed she thinks the seemingly senseless killing was a gang initiation.

Devoted Catholic Nathan Trapuzzano was shot while he was out on his regular, early morning stroll just a few hundred yards from the home where he lived with his pregnant wife Jennifer - who is due to give birth to a baby girl next month.

Indianapolis police have released chilling security footage of two men following the beloved 24-year-old, before one of them ushers him off camera into a parking lot while the other stands in the street acting as a lookout.

Moments later Nathan – who always clutched his rosary beads in his hand during his dawn walks and used the time as an opportunity to pray - was shot in his side and his attackers fled.

Currently officers say the motive is unclear, but the young woman who tried to save Nathan thinks it may have been a brutal gang initiation, a view backed up by some of his friends and his uncle Arthur Barnes.

His killers stripped him of his sneakers, sweater and t-shirt leading some to speculate that they may have taken them as trophies, although unconfirmed reports suggest the clothes might have been found dumped in the parking lot.

Forgiveness. 

Turning the other cheek.

Nathan Trapuzzano is still dead.

His wife is a widow.

His unborn child will come into this world, fatherless.

And in this one story, the city of Indianapolis, 78 percent white in 1990 and 58 percent white in 2010, continues its sprint to become just another Detroit.

It's time to stop turning the other cheek.
 
The homicide of Nathan Trapuzzano, a white, 24-year-old husband and father-to-be in Indianapolis, by two (race as of yet undetermined) people, represents the type of story that should motivate sheer, rational hatred.