Two men killed outside Loxahatchee party - Correction of the news story

Current mood: Angry
Category: News and Politics

The Palm Beach Post reported this article in the Newspaper and online on Saturday August 26, 2006.  As brother to the home owner referred to in this article I would like make corrections to statements in this article in order to expose the true facts in this incident.  Please see the corrections following this copy of the article.

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Two men killed outside Loxahatchee party

By Susan Spencer-Wendel

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office detectives are investigating a double homicide in Loxahatchee that occurred last night.

Two men died at the scene after a shooting outside a keg party attended by 30 to 35 young adults at 18727 Orange Grove Blvd., said a sheriff's office spokesman.

The victims were identified as Stephen Bunting, 20, and John Lott, 19, both of Loxahatchee.   Authorities said the shooting suspect fired at the men outside the party.

They got the call at 11:07 P.M.

Detectives have identified the suspect but said no further information is available.

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This article is incorrect, inaccurate and misleading.  It also fails to mention many facts about the incident.  The following are factual corrections provided by the people (my relatives) that live at the house and were there at the time this event occurred.

1.  There was no keg party at all.  This is a complete fabrication.  The only thing that was occurring at the house at the time was that Derek Hewitt  (the eldest son) was having 7 or 8 friends over.  It is my understanding that it was the birthday of one of his male friends and that was the purpose of this get together.  There was no actual party.  No birthday party, no keg party, no celebration of any kind.  Once again this was a fabrication by the Palm Beach Post or by someone giving them that information.

2.  The reported 30 to 35 people mentioned in the article are not in anyway known to the Hewitt's, the residents at the mentioned address.  The 30 to 35 people that are mentioned were not invited to this house by the residents; they were not in the house of the residence.  They were not welcome on the property, they were trespassing and had been told twice by the head of the Hewitt's household (Rory Hewitt) that they had to leave and could not hang around their property.  The first time they were simply told, "You cannot hang around here; you are going to have to leave".  The second time, when they had not yet left, they were again told, "You cannot stay around my property, you have to leave and if you don't leave I am going to call the cops."  It was after Rory returned to the house that this armed altercation took place among people in this group of 30 to 35 people.  The Hewitt's had no part in this incident other than the fact that these people were trespassing on their property.

3.  It is well known among the residence of this area of Loxahatchee, FL that people use these dirt access roads located around the neighborhoods to take shortcuts when walking from block to block.

To elaborate, this residential area was formerly orange groves and agricultural.  The residential blocks are longer than an average residential block and travel from East to West.  There are many remaining drainage/irrigation canals that run perpendicular to each block and divide these blocks in half.  Along these canals are unpaved access roads/foot trails.  Many people use theses access roads along the canals to avoid having to walk to the end of the block in order to go from street to street.  The Hewitt's home just happens to be next to one of these canals.  This group of people had congregated next to the canal along this access road along Hewitt's property.  This group of people, again, was not invited there; they chose to congregate at this location at their own will.  The Hewitt's did what they were supposed to do.  They asked them to leave, and then they warned them to leave once again or else they would call the authorities.

4.  The article fails to mention that Derek Hewitt went to the two wounded victims after the gunshots were heard and attempted to place a towel on the wounds and apply pressure, he also tried to give CPR.  At least one of these young men was still alive and breathing.  When the police finally came, they ordered Derek Hewitt to get away from the young man he was trying help.  The police did not follow with any attempts of their own to help the young man, saying only, We cannot help him, we are not paramedics.  The fire department was the second to arrive; they also did not assist or help the young man.  The last to arrive was the paramedics, who had taken the longest to arrive because they had made a wrong turn.  The young man had already passed by the time the paramedics arrived.  None of these emergency personnel demonstrated any urgency in attending to the victims.  None of this information was expressed in the news article or in another news forum that I have witnessed.

5.  It has recently come to my attention that the city, state, or police intend to file charges against the Hewitt's claiming that there was a MySpace.com account that had invited people to their address for a keg party and to my understanding is the primary reason that they have arrived at the assumption that there was a keg party taking place.  Now, this invitation (if it exists), did not come from anyone at the Hewitt's residence.  There was no invitation made by any of the Hewitt's, especially as there was no party taking place.  If there is or was an invitation made by someone on MySpace.com, it would have been from another outside party.  It would be completely out of the Hewitt's control if someone other then they were to invite people to meet next to their house.  On the other hand, if the local authorities had attended to the many complaints that have been made over the years about the people traversing the properties of the many residents in the area, perhaps they would have been able to prevent these incidents.  If the area was properly patrolled, not neglected, and the residents complaints about people walking through their properties over the years was answered, they could have prevented this many people from congregating in any given area in the first place.  Now they have the nerve to propose filing charges against the Hewitt's simply because these people chose to congregate next to their property.  It could have been on anyone's property along these access roads.

6.  I also heard from another relative that another Newspaper, I believe it was the Sun Sentinel, claimed to quote Rory Hewitt of saying that, His son allowed his party to get out of control.  This is also a complete fabrication.  They have taken a statement referring to the get together with his 8 friends inside the house and twisted the statements to imply that the group of 30 to 35 that congregated along the property was of one in the same. And since there was no party of any kind at the residence, that part was a flat out lie.  They also quoted Rory as having said that he was unaware of a keg at the party.  Once again, there was no party, another blatant fabrication.  If there was a keg, then the reason he would be unaware of it would be because they had nothing to do with the people that had congregated outside their home along the access road.

Once again it is obvious that the news media is more interested in sensationalizing then telling the facts and sprinkling embellishment along the way.  Don't believe everything you read and hear in the media.  They seldom tell the true facts.

I wrote this blog in defense of my family, since the government officials involved seem to want to play bureaucracy and take the easy way out instead of placing the responsibility were it belongs, the trespassers and the gunman.

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The short version of the true chronology of events is as follows:

Derek Hewitt had 8 friends over to hang out as it was one of their birthdays.  During the course of the evening, Derek had noticed a large group of young men had been gradually building along the access road next to their property and told his father about it.  Derek's father, Rory, went out side and told them that they could not hang out there and would have to leave and went back inside.  When they still had not left after some time, Rory again went outside and told them that if they didn't leave he would call the cops.  A short time after returning to the house, two gunshots were heard.  The Hewitt's found that there were two gunshot victims on their property.  They called 911 and reported the incident, Derek attempted to give aide to at least one gunshot victim by means of pressure with at towel to the gunshot wound and CPR.  When the police arrived, Derek was instructed to leave the victim alone, which probably exacerbated the situation and ultimately abandoned this young man to die due to the late arrival of the paramedics and the refusal of the police or fire department to go to the young mans aid.

This was the extent of the Hewitt's involvement