Tookie victim is woefully forgotten

At 4 a.m. Feb. 28, 1979, Albert Owens was sweeping the parking lot of a 7-Eleven. He worked there at night, and a factory in the day. His stepmother worried about his night job. "I need the money," she recalled him saying.

He was 26 years old - ironically, the same age the letter writer of Dec. 18, Nathan Kirby ("Rough upbringing spawned a killer"), had his first real job - with red hair, freckles and blue eyes. In his Army photograph, he looks a bit mischievous. He had married very young, and had two little girls.

He was not lucky enough to live in West Lake, or have parents who worked as English or anatomy professors. Albert was raised poor and had not even finished high school. Yet somehow he was a law-abiding citizen. He had never hurt anyone. How had he been that way? With no great privileges, no free college education. He made a choice to be a good man. All good people, regardless of situation, do.

Stanley Williams was raised poor, also. He made choices, also. The morning of Feb. 28, 1979, he chose to show his friends how to rob a store. The friends had failed on their solo attempt earlier that night. "Tookie," as Stanley was called, thought they were afraid. Tookie wasn't afraid. ... Then Albert was shot in the back, twice, and died.

Someone had to clean up the mess and finish sweeping the parking lot but, other than his family's memories, Albert is a forgotten man. In the movie about what a wonderful man Tookie became, Albert was called Alvin.

Tookie and his apprentices shared $120. Albert would have made about the same amount working his two jobs that day.

It was his choice.

Mike Fulford, Evans