Christopher Ruddy
Thursday, May 17, 2001

Thinking about the 13-year-old in the abstract, many people conjured up an image of a reckless youth who allowed his emotions to get away from him.

His age didn't relieve him of guilt, but to most people it may have relieved him of full culpability.

But any feeling of sympathy for young Nathaniel Brazill evaporated when I watched the assailant give his testimony on Court TV.

This young man, now 14 years old, looked and acted more like a natural born killer, not a run-of-the-mill teenager who may have just made a very tragic mistake.

Critics quickly said his courtroom testimony was unfair to the boy. After all, he was now a year older, and we could not feel, understand and sympathize with the 13-year-old Nathaniel.

Ridiculous. The fact is the kid was more mature today and should have had even more remorse and appreciation for the evil he carried out against his teacher, a man who had a life to live and a family to raise.

But it was clear that Nathaniel had little remorse. He seemed arrogant and perturbed he had to be questioned.

When asked by the prosecutor what happened after he shot Barry Grunow in the head, he shot back with arrogance, "What do you think happened??"

We like to think everyone is good and capable of becoming good.

But we fail to understand the banality of evil in our lives. We fail to understand that an individual must want to be good. A person does not become good merely because we wish or hope him to be good.

I was shocked to hear noted attorney Roy Black refer to Brazill's testimony as nothing more than "child abuse."

I believe the world would be better if all people held more contempt for what Brazill did, rather than the fact his lawyer had him testify publicly.

Nathaniel Brazill is a murderer. After a lengthy prison term, no one can be sure he won't murder or commit other crimes like rape if he doesn't get what he wants when he wants it.

This was a kid who was reprimanded for running through his school throwing water balloons. Officials sent him home early that day.

He was so angry by this mild discipline he decided to put a bullet through the head of his "favorite teacher."

The defense claim that the shooting was accidental doesn't measure up to the facts. The premeditated nature of the killing and the clear-cut video reveal a demonic individual willfully and carefully murdering his teacher.

I'd like to ask Roy Black what about the child abuse now done to Grunow's children?

What about the child abuse now committed upon a classroom of children forever scarred by this brutal slaying right before their eyes?

Our rage should be against such a perpetrator of such an act – no matter what age.

The jury should have given Brazill the severest punishment based on a first-degree murder charge – life in jail. Instead, the jury convicted Brazill of second-degree murder, making an early prison exit possible. The jury wimped out.

That's unfortunate, because I suspect that Brazill became the monster we know him as today because adults like the jurors have continually accepted his recklessness during his childhood.

I don't believe for a minute that a normal, decent child just one day up and murdered his teacher.

No, in Nathaniel's short life he learned he could do just about anything and his family wouldn't discipline him. My guess – and culturally it is happening across the country – is that Nathaniel thought he lived life as he wanted to without regard for others.

In "Lord of the Flies" we learned what happens to children left to their own devices and without adult intervention and supervision.

I surmise that at school the teachers and administrators took his abuse for many years and the system allowed the little maniac to progress in his violence to the point he was pulling out an automatic pistol. It was only logical that little Nathaniel was smart enough to realize he could get away with anything, including murder. With today's jury verdict, he did just that.

Back

Click Here

Click Here

Click Here

Click Here

Click Here