There was no escaping the tragic irony of the story on the radio that rainy morning last week as I drove down Interstate 40 to Raleigh. The newscaster reported a 13-year-old Harnett County boy had been killed by deputies outside a convenience story about 2:30 a.m. two days before.
Details about the death of eight-grader Joseph Wheeler were still emerging, but early news reports painted a picture of a troubled kid who made posts on his MySpace page three days earlier indicating he was sad and suicidal. “Death will come shortly for the next person who messes with me in the next week,” one of the posts said.
