Tara Cole
from front Page

 

charged with aggravated assault
for striking another homeless
person, Jessie Masters, in the
face with a bottle shortly before
they came upon Tara asleep on
the dock, Masters, 26,
later jumped in the river and
tried to save Tara. After
questioning Webber and Dotts,
who admitted to the crime,
police investigators say the men
confessed to driving to
Nashville “specifically to harass
and assault homeless persons.”
Police Chief Rona Serpas called
the actions of the two men
“sickening” and also expressed
his extreme dismay at them
choosing “to travel into our
downtown area from other
counties to bully the homeless.”
Detective Rick Winfrey.and
other investigators, according to
Serpas, were determined to
identify the persons
responsible for Tara Cole’s
death.
“I am very proud of their efforts
and dedication,” Serpas said.
And although the homicide case
of Tara Cole has been solved,
advocates of the homeless all
over the country say that her
death and the continued
persecution of homeless persons
all across the nation are
instigated by the negative and
offensive attitudes
generally held about the
homeless.
Clemmie Greenlee, director of
the Nashville Homeless Power
Project, is a non-profit
organization of formerly
and presently homeless
individuals. The NHPP assists
its clients in acquiring basic
services such as food,
clothing, and medical attention.
“People feel that the homeless
are on the streets because of
drugs and alcohol, “ said
Greenlee. “But there are other
situations that put people
outdoors, and they are not .
always in control of those kinds
of circumstances.” |
Greenlee was personally
acquainted with Tara, and most
of the homeless or “street”
community in Nashville knew
who she was. “Tara would
always be sitting alone by
herself, and she didn’t talk to
anyone,” said Greenlee. “She
would stay to herself, and we
very seldom saw her come in for
any type of
services. |
“She wore a blue, woolen skull
cap pulled all the way down on
her face to the top of her lip.
And we tried to look out for her.
“You had to go where she was.

When someone brought her a

~ meal, they would have to just go

over and sit by her for a minute.
Then, you just left the food
there, and went on down the
street.

Tara would wait until you left,
and then she would begin to
eat.” According to Mrs. Cole,
Tara had dreams of producing
music, and she wanted to make a
difference in the world. She
enjoyed singing and she even
toyed around with the idea of
playing guitar for a while. “Tara
was such a beautiful person.
And when she was diagnosed
with bipolar disorder, it was
devasting, just devasting to her
and all of us,” said Mrs. Cole.
“She just couldn’t see herself
taking medication for the rest of
her life. And so, she would stop
taking the meds.” Mrs. Cole
laments that Tara felt that her
parents and her ver loving step-

parents did not understand

what she was going through.
“Tara felf that we were happy
with the way this world is
because we work and are
professionally successful,” she
said of her daughter. “ But she
found the world to be a very
horrible place, brutal and
unfeeling, and she dreamed of
making an impact with the
music she would someday

- produce.”

Tara had been suffering with
bipolar disorder for more than
ten years. According to
Mrs.Cole, she had

been living in Nashville for the
past five years. “There were
frequent hospitals stay, and
when Tara would get out and
have her medication, she would

. Teturn home. She left and went »

to New York City for a time
before going to Nashville.
“And,” says her mother, “she
has been arrested before, along
with other homeless people who
would not leave the premises of
some place where they had been
asked to leave.” The young

woman, killed on a pointless and-

inhumane dare, would have
turned 33 on Nov. 25.

Although Tara’s parents went to
Nashville when they learned that
the young woman who was
pushed ff the dock was probably
their daughter, they were spared
the pain of having to identify the
remains recovered from the
river. “It was 12 days before
they actually recovered Tara’s
body. We were told that the
police were 98% sure that it was
our daughter. And by the time
they pulled her from a barge

7

the body w was caught under, we
had gone back home. “Tara was
positively idenitified with dental
records because by the time she

~ was actually recovered, there

was not much left to the body.”
The grand jury in Nashville
heard the testimony from
homeless witnesses before
bringing charges against the two
homicide suspects. Several of

those on the scene jumped in the .

river to try and save the
drowning woman. Police
surveillance cameras were also
key i in bringing the assailants to
justice.

“Some of the men jumped in
and tried to save Tara because
they knew she couldn’t float
with all those heavy coats on, “
said Greenlee. “We just cried
when we heard the testimony of
the young men who did this.
“The two men who rolled Tara
into the river were going back
and forth saying, ‘You do it,’
and the other would say, ‘No,
you do it.’ Finally, Webber
said, ‘Oh f*** it, I’ll do it.’
“And he swung around on a pole
near the place where Tara was
lying. He was swinging through
the air like Tarzan or a monkey,
and he worked up a hard swing
around the pole on the third try
and pushed Tara into the river
with his feet.” Almost six
million Americans reportedly
suffer with bipolar disorder. It
is also known as “manic-
depressive illness.”

Some of the more destructive
symptoms are : extreme

. depression, delusions, hearing

voices, and suicidal

thoughts, and behavior.

Paranoia often accompanies the
condition, and victims may feel
that loved ones

and close friends are “out to get
them.” How does the family of
someone like Tara recover from
such a shocking and distressing
death ?

“Tt was very hard, but the Lord
is helping us everday,” says
Tara’s mother. “‘I-have-forgiven
the young men who did this
thing, and God will forgive them
if they make a decision to follow
Jesus Christ.

“Closure came for us when we
were able to return home and

_ hold a memorial service for

Tara,” said Mrs. Cole. “She
died in the faith, and so, we
know that she is in the arms of
her Savior. We will see her
again one day in heaven.”

And for now, says Mrs. Cole,
that is enough for those Tara left
behind.

 

 

 

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contued from front page
spoken,” he said in a
telephone interview . “They
voted for the 264 bypass. We
had debates; we had
discussions; the City Council

voted to name the 264 bypass. -

“T support their decision.”

His position has placed him in

the minority among
colleagues. The executive
committee of the Pitt County
NAACP recently voted
against the city’s proposal,
and Garrett cast the lone
dissenting vote, according to
chapter president Calvin
Henderson.

This week, the Pitt County
Board of Commissioners
voted 5-4 to support the City
Council’s call for naming the
bypass for the Nobel Peace
Prize-winning King, and
Garrett said he agrees with
that action.

Garrett, who has been
honored with awards himself,
including the Pitt-Greenville
Chamber of Commerce
Citizen of the Year and Pitt
County Black Civic Group
Life Achievement Award —
wouldn’t offer an opinion on
what motivates those
embroiled in the current
controversy.

“I have no idea,” he said. “I
wouldn’t dare to try to give
you the thoughts of somebody
else.”

He does, however, offer an
observation from his own
experience.

“T have never had everything
my way, and when people
don’t agree with my decision,
it doesn’t bother me,” Garrett
said. “I am living in a country
called a democracy. If we are
not going to be governed by
the laws of those that we
elected to speak for us, then
we don’t need them.”

He is on record in support of
naming Fifth Street for King;
but Garrett — who lives on
Martin Luther King Jr. Drive,
which was West Fifth Street
until 1998 — also has
consistently maintained that,
barring that outcome, at least
some street should bear
King’s name.

“I don’t see what’s so holy
about any one street,” he said.
“I don’t see what, honestly,
anything is so holy about the
street I live on — it’s just
another street.”

“Martin Luther King don’t
know nothing about it.”

The request to rename the
U.S. 264 Bypass for King will
go forward to the state Board
of Transportation with the
support of both the Greenvil
City Council and Pitt County
Board of Commissioners.

In the meantime, Garrett
offers insight about the
continued sniping gleaned
from more than nine decades
as an observer and
participant.

“Folks have been fussing all
my life,” Garrett said. “Folks
... fussing is just part of
human nature, whether state,
local or international.”

“We'll get over it,” he said.
“It too will pass.”

T. Scott Batchelor can be
contacted at
sbatchelor@coxnc.com and
329-9567,

 
 

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