Last Friday night, an incident occurred in Nashua, New Hampshire that made news down here yesterday. Apparently, a 43-year-old woman named Ivonne Hernandez got into an argument with a 29-year-old man from that town and his girlfriend. Hernandez had been drinking in a local bar when the argument occurred.
The couple was joined by three other people, and when one of them noticed a New York Yankees sticker on the woman's car, they heckled her with chants of "Yankees Suck!" Hernandez, now in her car, gunned the engine and drove right at the hecklers in a parking lot, figuring they'd all scamper and she'd throw a scare into them.
But tragically, she hit Matthew Beaudoin, 29, and killed him. Hernandez has now been charged with reckless conduct, driving while intoxicated and second-degree murder.
The press are playing up the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry angle, but it sounds as if the original argument had nothing to do with baseball. A young man is now dead, and another woman's life is now ruined forever. Once again, automobiles and alcohol can prove to be a deadly combination.
In the wake of Matthew's tragic death, a petition is now up on the Internet from fans wanting the Red Sox to honor him. Sounds like a great idea. You can sign it by going here.
Let's hope the Red Sox do something for him, and especially for his family. (Thanks to Dan at Red Sox Monster for the link to the petition.)
Can't say I'd approve of the Sox honoring this guy in any way. A tragic accident, I'm sure, but he's at least partly to blame for it if he chose to antagonize the intoxicated woman by screaming taunts at her.
ReplyDelete"Yankees suck" at the sportsbar? Fine. At a ballgame? A little classless, but at least apropos. In a parking lot outside a bar after a completely-unrelated altercation? It's just uncalled for, and nobody should be surprised that the woman lashed out. Obviously her response was criminal, but the whole thing could have been avoided if this guy and his friends werent goons that give the rest of us a bad name.
A friend of Matthew's has also said that the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry had nothing to do with the argument, and they didn't chant anything at her, and that the first reports were not correct. Not sure what to believe at this point, but that two lives were horribly changed with this incident.
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