One poor, young British woman moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and became the victim of big city American crime.
As reported in the New York Post, a British woman, 22-year-old Ellie Bentley, moved to St. Louis in 2023 to be with her then-boyfriend, soccer player Indiana Vassilev.
She was exiting a car in front of her St. Louis home on Feb. 25, when, according to the U.S. Sun, she heard gunfire.
Per the Post, Andre Wilson, 35, was allegedly shooting at a group that was attempting to get into the wrong car, believing it be theirs. One man, 25, was injured in the gun fight.
Attempting to shield herself from the melee, Bentley ducked between a couple of nearby cars.
Dionte Taylor, 25, then got into a vehicle near where Bentley was hiding.
“She started to get in-between [the cars] and started to make eye contact with the driver like, ‘Hey, we’re going to be in this together,’” attorney Ben Tobin said, according to KSDK.
However, according to police, Taylor put the car in drive, running over Bentley, who was left hanging onto the car in order to avoid the wheels.
“She curled up into what I would call a fetal position, trying to protect her head and face and everything else,” Tobin said. “She ended up being on her right side, so her right arm is completely mangled. She has no use of it, multiple fractures.”
If found guilty, should the men be allowed parole?
Bentley was dragged under the car for two blocks, clinging desperately to anything that would keep her from getting kicked under the wheels, believing the whole time she was going to die.
“She was pretty sure she was going to die as she was dragged underneath the vehicle,” Tobin explained, per the Post. “For the entire time, she was lying there trying to hold on and do whatever she could, so she didn’t end up getting kicked out under the wheel.”
It was the quick action of the staff at the Platypus Bar, the location Taylor ended up depositing her, that ended up saving her life.
British citizen, Ellie Bentley, 22, spent 2 weeks in the hospital fighting for her life after being dragged under a car for 2 blocks during a hit-and-run shooting in St. Louis. Bentley suffered horrific injuries that led to five major reconstructive surgeries after being run over… pic.twitter.com/TuSX1yqyyj
— Southern Man (@MagicBelle1) March 12, 2024
“We were the first responders at that point,” bartender Jonathan Booker said, according to KSDK. “We fully expected to try to treat a gunshot wound. That’s the first thing on our mind. Then, of course we realized it was a very, very different situation.”
“They applied pressure to her arms and legs. That really helped slow down the bleeding and ultimately saved her life,” Tobin said.
Bentley was only released from the ICU on Tuesday, though she still has a long way to go before she fully recovers.
While KDSK called the area in which the shooting occurred a relatively quiet area, St. Louis as a whole is one of the most dangerous cities in America.
In a city like that, no area is going to be completely safe.
But does a city have to be riddled with random gun violence? Does St. Louis have to be as dangerous as it is?
The fact of the matter is our cities have as much crime as they allow.
While no city can prevent crime from ever occurring, most crime-ridden cities in the U.S. tend to be softest on crime, like Los Angeles or New York City.
Democrats running these cities could crush crime — if they really wanted to.
They could prevent tragedies like this by prosecuting every crime, getting rid of no-cash bail, refusing to plea down, and making jails and prisons absolutely brutal places no one would voluntarily return to — on top of actually enforcing the law.
Cities could likewise improve police training and funding, thereby making their police loved by the innocent and terrifying to the guilty.
We don’t have to live like this, no matter what liberals and Democrats try to tell us.
Punishing criminals and protecting the innocent is not racist or authoritarian.
It’s the duty of every elected official.
