First of two parts
One month from tomorrow will mark the five-year anniversary of one of the most brutal, spectacular murders in modern Culver City history:
JoAnne Crystal Harris, a 29-year-old putative National Guard recruit, was beaten to death at the Guard Armory by Sgt. Scott Ansman, 35-year-old married father of three and sometimes-boyfriend, apparently because he believed he was the cause of her pregnancy. Convicted two years later, he is serving a life-without-parole term in Northern California.
These years later, bitter feelings continue to well just beneath the surface of Ms. Harris’s only brother, Gerald Bennett, spokesman for the family since the matriarch, Martha Lou Harris, 71, died one year ago, almost to the day.
As the anniversary approached, Mr. Bennett issued the following statement:
“I hold the White House and President Obama’s administration responsible for my sister’s death.
“I say that because the National Guard Armory was responsible for her murder. They knew (weeks in advance) it was going to happen. They could have stopped it. Knowledge of her planned murder went to the top of the highest echelon.
“I am pretty sure the White House got information on it. Yet President Obama made a statement months ago about the Trayvon Martin story. He did not say anything about my sister’s murder, which was far worse. Her murder could have been prevented.
“Obama now is trying to get re-elected, and he is scrambling. I think he’s a poor choice for President. He’s a poor choice to represent black people.
“He needs to be removed from the White House because my sister’s murder shouldn’t have happened.
“They should have at least sent a letter to the family from the United States government and said ‘Hey, we apologize for this. We will do something to make sure this never, ever happens again.’
“Even though Obama was not in the White House in 2007, after everything had been played out, he was in the White House when this individual (Mr. Ansman) was convicted of double murder. He was in the White House when the men in the National Guard responsible for her murder, or for knowing about it and going to get hit men to get her killed, still are in place.”
(To be continued)
