The Murder of Josh Sweitzer

Before yesterday morning I’d never even heard of Josh Sweitzer. But 24 hours after stepping over puddles of his blood, I’m still trying to figure out why he had to die. It happened less than a mile from El Ocho itself; a burly young man working the counter of his uncle’s convenience store. When a group of rowdy young men crowded the tiny store, he insisted they step outside, with only two at a time remaining inside to buy their items. That obviously didn’t sit well with the young men, for minutes later one of them came back to the store, waited until Josh was alone behind the counter, then stepped inside and executed the 21 year old with a bullet to the brain. Family members say Josh Sweitzer didn’t stop breathing until hours later, but as his blood spread across the floor of the Lucky Mart convenience store, his dreams of becoming a cop - along with every other aspiration the young college graduate ever had - ceased to be...

I, of course, was blissfully unaware of the murder - until I walked into work yesterday morning and found two homicide detectives sitting at my desk. I didn’t know who they were, but their shoulder holsters and sour expressions told me I wouldn’t be turning a story on leftover Halloween candy after all. Instead, I’d spend the day retracing the steps of a most inexplicable act. It started with surveillance photos. The two detectives had them on a disk and together with reporter Caron Myers, were eager to see them disseminated. Still not sure what the suspects were wanted for, I digitized several ATM photos of a young man chuckling as he swiped a stolen bank card. Only after that did Caron interview the cops, and that’s when I learned about the neighborhood slaying that would consume the rest of my day. But even then it didn’t hit home. I’ve covered more murders than I can possibly remember. Rarely do they register as anything but more senseless fodder for the machine. This one, however, did.

Perhaps that’s because I used to frequent the store Josh died in. Or maybe it was because I had the misfortune of stepping inside that very establishment before the crime scene cleaners had arrived. Most probably, my emotional connection was formed when Josh’s uncle stepped before the cameras and told of his young nephew’s thwarted dreams. A big burly guy himself, the uncle’s voiced hitched as tears streamed down his face. A few minutes into the interview, I was breathing heavy myself - even as I reached up to zoom in closer. Whatever the reason, I couldn’t shake the scenario from my mind. Josh’s killers didn’t take anything; they just stepped inside the store and assassinated a young man who was scheduled to meet with an Air Force recruiter a few hours later. If you think it makes no sense on the evening news - ya oughta check it out in 3-D sometime. The only solace is in those surveillance photos. Spreading those across the land won't raise the dead, but hopefully they’ll assist whoever his killers are on their way to the lethal injection lab. I’d kinda like to be there, too.