A shooting star falls

By Ryan Schomber
Staff Writer

Karle Lacey was a basketball player here at Georgia College & State University last semester, but over the winter break Lacey’s life got flipped upside down.
Lacey was going to pick up his pregnant girlfriend Ebony Kelly, 19, at the American Legion Post early Wednesday morning on Dec. 26, when a fight erupted and he pulled out a semiautomatic handgun, sending five people to the hospital.
Rico Miller, 21, was talking to his ex-girlfriend, Kelly, when Lacey and Miller got into a fight. Lacey fired his 9 mm Lorcin handgun, for which he had a permit, at least three times.
Miller was shot once in the abdomen and underwent surgery at Thomas Hospital. According to the Mobile Register, Lt. Chris Browning said, “Miller was listed in fair condition as of Wednesday evening.”
Also involved were Alex Miller, Rico’s brother, who was shot in the thumb, and three others who were treated and released that same Wednesday night.
According to the Mobile Register, Browning said, “A couple of the injuries occurred when at least one bullet hit something, shattering it into shrapnel.”
Lacey was being held for one charge of attempted murder and four counts of second-degree assault in connection with the shooting at the American Legion Post.
The American Legion Post, where the incident happened, has since tightened up on security, trying to prevent something like this from happening again.
“We checked as much on Karle as we did on other player here at Georgia College,” said Athletic Director Dr. Stan Aldridge. “We try recruiting people we want to be in our program.”
Lacey is on temporary suspension, and things will not get easier after that. He must file an appeal just to get into school again, which would be hard to do. His career at GC&SU is over, and now the team must look past this to move forward.
“As a school, we are never very proud of this,” said Dr. Aldridge.
Things do not look too promising for Lacey, who wanted to have a career in basketball. It will be difficult for Lacey to look past this and move on easily. This is going to affect Lacey for the rest of his life, and no one can change the fact that he pulled out a gun and shot five people. One must wonder, why did Lacey have a gun on him if it was self-defense? Does this mean that if an argument takes place we should all have guns on us to solve the problem?
Now GC&SU must move beyond this. The Bobcats still have the rest of this season to finish. But how can a campus like this one, with such a good reputation, get past this?
“I think this will be very negative in the conference (Peach Belt) and recruiting for us,” said Dr. Aldridge.
GC&SU must live with the fact that now recruiters might look right past this school for an incident that the school had no control over. This school has three R’s: Reason, Respect and Responsibility, but Lacey disrupted all three with his actions on the morning of Dec. 26.
“I was very saddened to hear about the incident in Alabama involving Mr. Lacey,” said Dean of Students and Vice President for Student Affairs, Dr. Harshbarger.
The entire school, the entire community, was let down on Dec. 26.
But now more then ever, Karle Lacey must want what he cannot have.His life back.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 18 2002. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry