San Francisco, CA–
“The capacity to love is a vital, rich and all-consuming function…you can find nobility and sacrifice and love wherever you may seek it out…”–Rod Serling
Most fathers would do anything to protect their daughters, and here’s another example. Like hero father James Kim, Albert Collins gave his life to save his family. According to the San Francisco Chronicle:
“Collins’ last act was to throw his body over the top of his daughter to shield her from the barrage that would leave him dead, his daughter with a graze wound and two brothers injured…
“A cousin held Collins’ head. Nash said she watched helplessly, as her son made what would be his final requests. ‘He told his sister to look out for his son and his daughter.'”
The story is below–thanks to Brad Smith, a reader, for sending it to me.
A father gets gunned down saving his daughter
Jaxon Van Derbeken
San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, January 6, 2008
On New Year’s Eve morning, Albert Collins took his 9-year-old daughter, Mariah, to pick out a treat at a candy house in the Sunnydale public housing project.
It was a fatal errand.
For years, candy houses have been makeshift havens in crime-plagued neighborhoods where residents sell and buy candy and other items in safety – rather than venture to liquor-dealing corner stores that are often magnets for trouble.
Collins, 30, had recently gotten a job through Goodwill Industries and was staying with his mother at the Sunnydale public housing project in San Francisco’s Visitacion Valley. By all accounts, he was trying to make a better life for himself, his daughter and his 13-year-old son, Albert Jr., whom he took custody of after the boy’s mother had recently been jailed in Oakland.
But he didn’t get the chance.
As Collins stopped on the way to the candy house to talk to friends – two brothers who lived in the neighborhood – they were hit with gunfire at 11:40 a.m.
Collins’ last act was to throw his body over the top of his daughter to shield her from the barrage that would leave him dead, his daughter with a graze wound and two brothers injured.
“He turned and sensed something was happening and grabbed her,” said Inspector Michael Gaynor of the San Francisco police homicide detail. “At some point, he saw the guy with the gun – that was when he grabbed her.”
With that, Collins became the last of the city’s 98 homicides in 2007, the highest yearly death toll in more than a decade. According to police, he may have been an innocent victim in a gang-related shooting, by gang members firing at rivals nearby.
Read the full article here.