A Year Ago This Week

It was a year ago this week when an unspeakable act of violence, motivated by racial hatred, befell our peaceful community.

The tranquility of a typical, early-summer, Saturday afternoon was shattered when a 28 year-old white man, a native of Warerham who had been living in Winthrop for a short time with his wife, shot two Black persons, 60 year-old Ramona Cooper, a retired Air Force veteran who only recently had moved to Winthrop, and 68 year-old David Green, a Winthrop natve and retired State Trooper who was beloved in our community, in cold blood when they crossed paths on Shirley St. near Cross St., for no other reason than the color of their skin.

Thanks to the quick response of Winthrop police and the heroism of Sgt. Nicholas Bettano, the suspect himself was shot in the street when he refused to put down his weapons (he was armed with two handguns).

It is believed that the shooter, whose belongings later were found to contain white supremacist and anti-Semitic literature, was en route to the nearby local temple and synagogue with the intent of perpetrating a mass shooting incident before he was stopped by Sgt. Bettano.

To be sure, both Ramona Cooper and David Green happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, given that the shooter did not fire his weapon at white passers-by, his intent to shoot them solely because they were Black is undeniable.

For those of us who have called Winthrop our home for many years, we still shudder whenever we drive down Shirley St. toward Cross St. — the events of June 26, 2021, are just too terrible to contemplate.

However, the best way that we can honor the memories of Ramona Cooper and David Green is never to forget that tragic and horrible day and resolve to do whatever we can to end the racism and prejudice that still is far too prevalent throughout our country.