Anticipating joy, a doting mother suffers a horrific tragedy, while on her way to a friend’s house to prepare for Eid:

Radiant, content and at the pinnacle of her life, Syeda Arif held her 2-month-old daughter in her arms as she plucked out a baby bag from the trunk of her Honda.

It was 3 p.m. Tuesday and she had just pulled up to a friend’s home along Sherman Way with her daughter, Ikra, and 5-year-old son, Ayman.

Less than a block away, strangers Armando Gamboa Ayon, a Pacoima teen, and Brian Gilbert Barnes, a porn star and self-proclaimed pot smoker, were taunting each other, zipping west through heavy afternoon traffic on Sherman Way in a show of bravado, pushing the speedometer to 90 mph, police said….

In a chain-reaction crash, Ayon plowed into a parked car, which then slammed into Arif’s, crumpling it like a tin can and crushing her and her son. Her daughter flew out of her hands. [LA Daily News]

I’ve read differing reports which suggest that this was either road rage or a street race. Whatever it was, it was wrong. Ayon stayed, the porn star fled the scene, both have been arrested (the latter turned himself in).

LAPD Detective Bill Butos said the motorists were “cutting each other off, they were jockeying for position. They were tapping on the brakes, one of the vehicles was tapping on the brakes, trying to cause the other vehicle to ram into the vehicle. They cannot point to the other individual and say, well, that person started it.” [KTLA]

Such a familiar story:

Arif had come to the United States seven years ago from Bangladesh and moved to a four-bedroom Northridge home with her husband, a computer engineer, to be closer to her friends.

Inside the home Wednesday of her best friend, Shahnaz “Zabeen” Kazi, an April 23 clipping of a local Bengali paper, the Ekush, showed Arif beaming into the camera, surrounded by a dozen women dressed in pink saris at her baby shower.

“It’s tragic, just so tragic. We are all so shocked,” said Kazi, tears streaming down her cheeks, later adding, “I hate the man who did this.” [LA Daily News]

Me too. That poignant visual, of smiling women dressed in pink saris at a baby shower, is haunting.

The young mother’s legs were crushed. She ended up losing one; they are trying to save the other. Initially, her son was placed on life support. Her baby daughter is in critical condition after surviving this:

Witnesses said the younger child was “launched into the air and slammed against a tree, “ police Capt. Ron Marbrey said. [WTOP]

Horrifying. This infant was torn from her mother’s arms thanks to the actions of two reckless, stupid criminals. The little boy, who suffered massive brain damage, died late last night:

…the two motorists who had been booked for attempted murder would face probable charges of second-degree murder. [KTLA]

More about one of the killers:

In a light-hearted interview a year ago on an Adult DVD Talk podcast, Barnes’ assessment of himself was almost prophetic for what happened this week.

“I smoke pot not for my health, but for other people’s,” he said. “I think I’m generally a violent person. Smoking pot really helps me curb my ways. It makes me very happy and mellow and very easy to get along with, instead of an irate (jerk).” [LA Daily News]

Then I wish you had been at home with your bong, instead of out using your car as a murder weapon. So senseless.

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Tip: MuraliMannered, via the News Tab

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Why did I publish this post?

Because we identify with those who are like us. This is a tragedy. Many of us (myself included) don’t pay attention when we’re driving, we speed, we let someone get the best of us and then we get caught up in some trifling Fast and Furious drama…once, when I was in my late teens, my Father, who never got a ticket in his 30 years of driving in this country asked me, “kunju, what if you hit someone?” I shrugged it off, but I can recall at least two instances when I wasn’t paying attention and I almost hurt someone.

If the emotion which I predict many of you will feel after reading this news story gets us to stop and be more careful, it’s worth a post. One beautiful young family, maimed and murdered…for what?