Not Christina Green

Brisenia Flores

The whole country knows that nine-year-old Christina Green was killed, allegedly by Jason Loughner, in the January 8 massacre in Tuscon, Arizona. She was killed at the same public meeting at which Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona) was shot in the head at point blank range. That remembrance is as it should be. But why doesn't everyone know another nine-year-old girl who was also the victim of gun violence in Arizona? Why doesn't everyone know Brisenia Flores?

Brisenia Flores was brutally murdered - shot twice in the face - in the early morning hours of May 30, 2009, in the living room of her home in Arivaca, Arizona. But she has received precious little mainstream media attention. Her alleged killers are now on trial. Why has there not been more attention paid to the killing of this precious child, this innocent child, who happens to be of Mexican descent? Or is the question the answer?

On the night of May 29, 2009, Brisenia chose to sleep on the living room sofa to be near her new puppy, who was not allowed in her room. She had just finished third grade, and she and her family had spent the day shopping for new summer shoes for Brisenia in her hometown about 60 miles from Tucson.  Sometime after midnight, several people knocked on the door of the family's trailer, shouting that they were law enforcement officers and that the family was suspected of harboring fugitives. That was a lie. Believing they were the authorities, Brisenia's father Raul opened the door and four camouflage-clad intruders, one woman and three men, burst in. After taking over the house, they shot Raul several times in the stomach and in the chest, and they shot Brisenia's mother Gina Gonzales in the leg. Gina fell to the floor and played dead. That saved her life.

Gina heard her daughter say, "Please don't shoot me," just before one of the gunmen fired two bullets into Brisenia's head there on the sofa in the living room. She was killed in order to leave no witnesses. The four intruders stole some jewelry and other items and left.  When they were gone, Gina Gonzales stood up and went to get Raul's gun. Then she made her way to the telephone and called 911. While Brisenia's mother Gina was on the phone with 911, the intruders came back, realizing that they had left a live witness. This time, Gina fired at them, wounding one of them, and they left again.

But this was not an ordinary home invasion. This was a hate crime. The woman who entered the Flores and Gonzales home that morning has been identified as Shawna Forde, an anti-immigrant vigilante. She was a member of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps until that group dismissed her for unstable behavior. She then formed the group Minutemen American Defense, and she and the group patrol the US-Mexican border armed with weapons. It has been alleged that she thought they would find drugs and cash in Brisenia's parents' home. The jewelry stolen from the home was found in her possession, and blood from the scene is part of the evidence against her. She could get the death penalty.

I did not even hear of this crime at the time that it took place. I only learned of it recently. Of that I am ashamed, but I am also angry at the mainstream media for the victims they choose to cover. White middle class victims. But look at this innocent face, this shy face. This beautiful blessed child. We should have grieved Brisenia as a nation. Her funeral should have been broadcast on TV. And it should have served as the motivation for fair and realistic immigration reform and realistic handling of border control and the horrific problems therein.

ADDENDUM: A jury convicted Shawn Ford of murder in the deaths of Brisenia and her father Raul, and on February 22 she was sentenced to death. The jury's sentence is binding.