A Time To Kill:

Antwain Caroline
Omariea Bates
English III H
1A

Context:
On November 29, 2015 a shot rung peoples ears
on Joe Louis Drive around 2:00 in the morning
while people where sleeping. Little did they
know Mr. Antwain Caroline just lost his life with a
gunshot to the chest. All because of a simple
argument between Antwain and Melvin James
White. They said it was an acquaintances but in
reality that was his mothers boyfriend. I dont
understand why a gun had to get involved when
they couldve just fought each other. It didnt
have to turn so fatal. Deputies found Antwan
Caroline, 25, dead in his front yard in the wee
hours of Sunday morning. Why would you want
to hurt your girlfriend and take her son away
from her? Thats not love, sounds more like a
form of hate.

Perspectives:
Esther: The mother. The one who brought Melvin around her son.
Melvin: The man. The one with the feelings and a gun.
Antwain: The son. The one that ended up losing his life.
Melvin: What couldve been his reason to kill Twan? Twan couldve insulted or intimidated him;
tried his manhood. But why couldnt they just fight? What was the point of shooting him?
Since Melvin was intoxicated that gave him to liquid courage to make Twan hurt. Did he mean
to kill him? Probably not, maybe things just got a little too far a little to fast.
Twan: There was a gun pointed at him Why didnt he react, or did it all happen too fast? Was
his priority to protect his mother; because I know that he wanted to make sure she was okay
other everything.

Perspectives:
Melvin knew what he did was wrong, but was
he truly regretful for what he did or did he
want some pity on his side?
Twan probably didnt understand why his life
was taken and thats a fact. His last words to
his mother were Ma he shot me Ma, he shot
me! Its obvious that whatever situation
they had wasnt so serious that it needed to
end up in someone losing their live.
Twans mother Esther most likely couldnt
wrap her head round the her youngest son
just took a bullet wound to the chest from a
man she claimed she loved.

Problem:
There where many conflicts dealing with this case:
1. Melvin was in a relationship with Twans mother.
2. Melvin was drunk.
3. Melvin felt intimidated because Twan was taller and looked stronger than him.
4. Melvin wanted to prove him self.
5. Melvin didnt care that he could possible take someones life, he wanted people to know he was a
man and that we wasnt going to let somebody play with him or his feelings.
Moral Dilemmas:
1. Being A Man
2. It was just an accident.
3. I gotta show that I'm not scared of nobody, no matter their size.

Solution:
I feel as if Melvin couldve proved that he was a man in another way. He couldve
resolved the situation and acted more calmed to earn respect from me.
I also feel like it couldnt have been accident if you were standing 5 feet from Twan
and put a gun to his chest. Did you finger accidentally slip? I dont think so. Melvin
knew what his heart told him to do and that was murder my cousin.
As I stated before Melvin couldve just fought Twan to show that he didnt want to be
made fun of a or picked on. Even if he didnt win the altercation he couldve still
tried. It shouldnt have gotten to the point where you knew that you want to take
someones life and actually did it.
In the end it all makes sense. After analyzing the story I can see where majority of
the conflict came from. My approach make sense simply because Melvin was wrong
from every angle no matter how you look at the situation. It wouldve been different if
Antwain was acting in the same way, but he wasnt. So my cousin should still be alive
and well. Not 6 feet under because of a simple drunken argument between him and his
future stepfather.

Implications:
In another case a stepfather shot a his wifes two children and two of his own.
The reason his shot the kids were because of an argument between him and the
mother.
I felt like the father and Melvin should have both choose a different route to
handling there situations. They couldve left and went to calm themselves down.
But in this situation the father didnt argue with one of his children he was
arguing with the mother, who also was shot but didnt die.
Just like I felt with Melvin I feel like Mr. Gregory Green (the father) should have
made much greater choices and thought about the hurt they were going to feel in
the long run. They are now suffering with guilt just because they wanted to show
they manliness and how strong they were.