Please accept our Best Wishes for Mother and Child.
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Lon Strickler says...
In light of the recent horrific incident in Newtown, Connecticut, the following past post may bring some solace to those who believe in miracles and a divine spirit:
Some places and dates are branded by disaster, by the stories of one horrible day that no one can forget: 9/11, Oklahoma City, Columbine. What sets this horrible day apart from others is about what didn't happened. The small town of Cokeville, Wyoming was the sight of a parent's worst nightmare on May 16th, 1986 when a mentally disturbed man and his wife entered an elementary school with guns and a homemade gasoline bomb.
The man's name was David Young, a former town marshal. He had been the tiny's towns only police officer in six months during 1979 and when he was fired for misconduct, he moved to Tucson, Arizona. He and his wife returned to Cokeville in 1986 and carried out their insidious plan. Young had a manifesto called "Zero-Infiniti" and proclaimed "this is a revolution!" as he and his wife took an entire generation - over 160 children and teachers - hostage and wouldn't release them until he was given 300 million dollars and a personal phone call from Ronald Reagan, the President of the United States.
Keeping all the children in a single room and standing in the middle of it, the Youngs began a standoff that would last 2 1/2 hours. David left the room leaving his wife alone and it was then that the bomb went off instantly killing Doris. The bomb had been on the shopping cart and, though it was homemade, it was powerful enough to destroy a section of the school. Moments before the explosion, Young handed the shoelace and clothespin to his wife and went across the hall to the bathroom. Doris Young apparently didn’t realize how sensitive the trigger mechanism was and accidently caused it to go off.
The blast knocked Williams off her feet. The room erupted in chaos as children ran screaming in the dark, smoke-filled room. While many kids, including her friends Amber Kemp and BranDee Prows, escaped through the window, Williams crawled toward a light at the doorway. She crossed paths with David Young at the door, and he tried to grab her shirt, but the tide of running children prevented him. She escaped but saw flames on her shirt and felt an odd, tickling sensation on her shoulder. She started rolling to try to put it out, but the burning sensation only intensified. She was saved from further burns when some teachers found her and slapped out the flames. Then they told her to run.
Running toward the blast Young started to randomly spray the area with gunfire. Some kids were grazed by whizzing bullets, but none were hit. Through the chaos, everyone was eventually accounted for except for the Youngs. Upon finding his burning wife, Young had shot her and then returned to the bathroom and shot himself.
The miraculous thing is that despite the shooting and the detonation of the bomb, the Youngs were the only casualties. Some children and teachers suffered severe flash burns from the explosion and minor bullet wounds, but all were alive. In the last 20 years, this event has become known as The Miracle of Cokesville..... continues
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