Wonder why we haven't heard about this tragedy?

Teen killed, woman injured in shooting
April 8, 2008

[color="Blue"]Jonathan Lee Russell
RIP

INDIAN TRAIL, N.C. -- Friends are calling a 15-year-old teenager, shot and killed during a sleepover, a hero for what he did to get a toddler out of harms way.

"Jonathan,” murmured 2-year-old Hayden.

"Yeah, Jonathan huh,” replied his father, who asked that we not use his name.

Jonathan Lee Russell died following a shootout while staying at a friend’s house on Rosetta Drive in Indian Trail Sunday night. He was an eighth grader at Sun Valley Middle School.

Investigators have no reason to believe that Russell was a target but told WCNC that the violence was not a random act.

"It all happened so fast and (we) just hit the ground and prayed," said homeowner Tamara Hartis.

Hartis, 36, had a bandage on her head where a bullet grazed it.

Hartis remembers answering the door. She called for her son when she couldn't understand what the man at the door wanted. However, Russell went to the living room first.

"AK-47, assault riffle,” she said.
Also Online

*Click on niggers for previous story

The suspect near the door had moved aside and someone else started shooting from behind a nearby vehicle, hitting Russell.

"He saved my son's life and I can't repay him for that,” said Hayden’s father as he cried. “(He) pushed him out the way you know.”

The toddler and his teen parents were also in the house. They told WCNC that Russell managed to push Hayden out of the way as the teen was falling to the ground after taking a bullet.

“Who would be thinking about someone else after they just got shot,” added the toddler’s father. “That kid had a heart of gold."

Investigators have not made public a possible motive for the shooting. They are looking for as many as four men who may have gotten away in a white 1995-1997 model Nissan Altima.