Say Anything Blog

Here’s the scenario: A man named Vernon Allen is sitting in his apartment late one night watching television.  Shortly after midnight, a seventeen-year-old kid named Joel LaFromboise opened his door and walked in.  Allen stood and asked the kid what he was doing.  Asked him if he needed help.  LaFromboise advanced on Allen in a manner Allen took to be combative.  Allen grabbed his shotgun and pointed it at LaFromboise and again demanded that he leave.  LaFromboise attempted to grab the gun from Allen.  A struggled ensued, and LaFromboise ended up getting shot in the chest.

At which point he staggered to his parents’ apartment, fell on the floor and died.  Now the family of LaFromboise is calling Allen a murder.

Ralph LaFromboise spent Father’s Day reeling in shock, making funeral arrangements for his eldest son instead of tending the grill.

“You can’t describe how it feels to lose a son or one of your children,” he said. “You expect to die before they do. I moved my kids from Minneapolis to Fargo to keep them out of trouble.”

The family isn’t sure why Joel LaFromboise wandered into at least three strangers’ apartments before his death. He does have friends in the area of Romkey Park, just down the street from the apartment complex at 1107 19th St. S. where he died. ...

Police have said Allen will not face criminal charges at this time in connection with the shooting, which angers Joel LaFromboise’s family.

“I’m upset that nothing’s happening to this guy,” Ralph LaFromboise said. “He murdered my son. My son’s a juvenile, this is a grown man, he can’t be scared of my son. My son didn’t have no weapon.”

Allen told The Forum on Saturday that he shot Joel LaFromboise after the teen grabbed the barrel of the gun and would not leave, saying he pulled the trigger out of fear the gun would be turned on him.

That doesn’t make sense to Ralph LaFromboise.

“If he can reach his shotgun, how come he can’t reach his telephone and call 911?” the father asked. “Maybe he could have just shot to scare him.”

According to the article, witnesses said Joel LaFromboise was unresponsive.  He’d barged into other apartments that night.  And he appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs.  The parents say he wasn’t, but most parents would say that.

Now, this may sound cold, but it’s not Allen’s responsibility to try and call 911 when he’s being confronted by a big, combative stranger who just barged into his living room.  Allen didn’t go looking for trouble.  He didn’t provoke Joel LaFromboise in any way.  Joel LaFromboise was acting bizarrely.  He may have been inebriated.  And he was breaking into other people’s homes.

And when he attacked one of those people in their homes he got shot when that person defended himself.

The moral of the story is: This whole mess could have been avoided if Joel LaFromboise hadn’t broken into someone else’s home.

Update: Here’s the kid’s MySpace page.  Notice the gang sign in the picture, and his mood which is set to “smokin’ sherm sticks.”

I’m no expert in drug culture, but I’m pretty sure “sherm sticks” are marijuana joints dipped into something like PCP or embalming fluid to create a hallucinogenic effect.  Maybe an effect that would make you stumble into people’s apartments and try to engage the denizens in combat.