A Scar That Always Will Be Visible

The major media have moved on, as they inevitability do, in the aftermath of the tragic events that occurred on Shirley St. in the middle of a typically-peaceful, early-summer afternoon on Saturday, June 26.

But the murderous spree committed by 28 year-old Nathan Allen, who moved to Winthrop in October, 2019, which claimed the lives of two wonderful members of our community, 68 year-old David Green and 60 year-old Ramona Cooper, will never be far from the thoughts of all of us who call this place our home.

We have been covering the news for the Sun-Transcript for more than five decades. During that time, we have reported on many tragic events, from the crash of the Eastern Airlines plane off the Cottage Park Y.C. in 1960 that claimed 62 lives, to drownings, drunk-driving accidents, and murders.

Tragedy is a part of the human condition, as the ancient Greek playwrights acknowledged, and Winthrop has not been immune.

However, no incident in the course of our professional career ever has been as shocking and as heinous as what Nathan Allen perpetrated in a matter of a few minutes on Shirley St. on June 26.

All of us want to know what pushed Nathan Allen into the realm of becoming a radicalized white supremacist. There are many questions and we may never get all of the answers.

However, regardless of the how, what, and why behind the tragic events of June 26, we do know this: Allen’s targeting of David Green and Ramona Cooper, both of whom were Black, and the extreme ferocity with which he carried out his rampage, for which the word barbaric is an understatement, have left a scar that may heal, but always will be visible and painful in our community.