Juvenile charged with murder after eighth-grade girl shot dead in Virginia

Oliver O'Connell
·2 min read
Lucia Bremer, the middle school girl who was shot dead on 26 March 2021 in a suburb of Richmond, Virginia (Courtesy of Bremer family via Henrico Schools)
Lucia Bremer, the middle school girl who was shot dead on 26 March 2021 in a suburb of Richmond, Virginia (Courtesy of Bremer family via Henrico Schools)

Police in Virginia have arrested a juvenile suspect and charged him with second-degree murder in connection with the shooting of a young teenage girl.

Lucia Whalen Bremer was killed on Friday afternoon outside a home in the Gayton Forest West subdivision of Raintree, a suburb of Richmond. Lucia was rushed to hospital but succumbed to her injuries.

As the neighbourhood backs onto Godwin High School a temporary lockdown was issued in the wake of the shooting.

The girl, who was identified by her family on social media, was an eighth-grade student at Quioccasin Middle School in Richmond. The school principal said she “radiated happiness” in a statement.

On the Facebook page of the family business, a post read: “Liberty Tree Farm is saddened to report that our beloved daughter and joyful farmer, Lucia Whalen Bremer, was killed in a senseless act of gun violence on March 26.”

“Thank you for keeping our family in your thoughts as we navigate the next few weeks.”

Read more:

Henrico County officers arrested the suspect on Saturday afternoon. The identity of the suspect has not been disclosed because of his age but police said he was identified via tips called in by the public.

“On behalf of the entire police division, we appreciate the community support through the tips called in and to our partners with the Richmond ATF who assisted in the investigation,” said Lieutenant Matt Pecka.

Police confirmed that the suspect is also charged with possession of a firearm by a juvenile, and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Melanie Phipps, Lucia’s principal, sent a message to parents on Saturday saying that the loss has left her “heartbroken and devastated”.

“Lucia was funny. She loved to tell jokes and made people laugh. She was an amazing public speaker, and you would just listen in awe as she spoke. Lucia was wise beyond her years. Talking to her didn’t feel like talking to a middle schooler,” Ms Phipps wrote.

“Lucia was exceptional; truly one-of-a-kind. She was brave, hardworking, and kind to everyone. Her smile would light up the entire room.

“In fact, her mother told me that Lucia’s name means ‘light,’ which is just the perfect way to describe her. She radiated happiness, and she loved our school.”

A virtual memorial service was planned for Sunday afternoon and extra security measures will be in place at the school on Monday.

Recommended Stories

  • North Korea accuses U.N. Security Council of 'double standard' over missile tests

    North Korea said on Monday that the U.N. Security Council showed a double standard as its sanctions committee criticised the country's recent missile test as a violation of U.N. resolutions. North Korea launched a new type of tactical short-range ballistic missile last week, prompting Washington to request a gathering of the U.N. Security Council's (UNSC) sanctions committee.

  • ‘Why don’t you do your job?’: Lindsey Graham hits out after being asked what Republicans would do to fix border crisis

    ‘The Independent’ asks Republicans for long-term solutions

  • Domestic violence victim speaks out after husband jailed for stabbing her eight times in front of their children

    Mohammed Farooq, 55, subjected his wife Nusarat, 36, to a decade of terror and violence.

  • Chet Hanks draws ire after claiming it will be a ‘white boy summer’

    Son of Hollywood actor Tom Hanks has come under fire for his antics on social media

  • Beto O'Rourke ridicules Ted Cruz for posting videos claiming he encountered 'cartel members' at the Mexican border

    Sen. Ted Cruz and other Republicans criticized President Biden's handling of border migration after visiting the Rio Grande on Friday.

  • Japan's MUFG, Sumitomo face climate votes at AGMs as activism grows

    Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan' biggest bank, and Sumitomo Corp, one of the country's largest trading houses, are being targeted with climate resolutions from activist shareholders at their annual shareholder meetings. While the proposal to align Mizuho's business with the 2015 Paris climate accord was defeated, it was the first listed company in the country to hold such a vote, and support for the resolution, at 35%, showed Japanese attitudes were changing.

  • Three weeks before George Floyd killing, accused officers violently detained another Black man

    Derek Chauvin’s trial begins on Monday 29 March

  • Pope on pandemic's second year: Weariness, economic hardship

    Celebrating Palm Sunday Mass for a second time in the pandemic without crowds of faithful, Pope Francis said while shock dominated the first year of the COVID-19 health emergency, now people are more weary, with the economic crisis growing heavier. Traditionally, the pope leads a Palm Sunday procession through St. Peter’s Square in front of tens of thousands of pilgrims and tourists clutching olive branches and braided palms before celebrating an outdoor Mass. “For the second time we are living it (Holy Week) in the context of the pandemic," Francis said, with around 120 faithful, including nuns and a few families or couples, sitting far apart in the pews.

  • House Democrats introduce ‘DeJoy Act’ in mocking attempt to protect USPS from service cuts

    A group of lawmakers propose ‘Delivering Envelopes Judiciously On-time Year-round Act’ after mail chief unveils service rollbacks

  • Boost Your Passive Income With Monthly Dividend Checks From These 3 Stocks

    Dividends are usually paid quarterly or semiannually, but let's face it: Your bills keep rolling in every month. Fortunately, there are a handful of companies that make monthly dividend payments. Realty Income (NYSE: O), LTC Properties (NYSE: LTC), and STAG Industrial (NYSE: STAG) are three commercial REITs with strong track records of paying monthly dividends.

  • On screen and on stage, disability continues to be depicted in outdated, cliched ways

    Actress Claire Danes playing CIA officer Carrie Mathison, who struggles with mental illness, on the set of 'Homeland.' ShowtimeThe #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements have forced Hollywood and other artists and filmmakers to rethink their subject matter and casting practices. However, despite an increased sensitivity to gender and race representation in popular culture, disabled Americans are still awaiting their national (and international) movement. “Disability drag” – casting able-bodied actors in the roles of characters with disabilities – has been hard to dislodge from its Oscar-worthy appeal. Since 1947, out of 59 nominations for disabled characters, 27 won an Academy Award – about a 50% win rate. There’s Eddie Redmayne’s performance as Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything”; Daniel Day-Lewis’ portrayal of Christy Brown, who has cerebral palsy, in “My Left Foot”; and Dustin Hoffman’s role as an autistic genius in “Rain Man” – to mention just a few. In recent years, however, we’ve seen a slight shift. Actors with disabilities are actually being cast as characters who have disabilities. In 2017, theater director Sam Gold cast actress Madison Ferris – who uses a wheelchair in real life – as Laura in his Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie.” On TV and in movies, disabled actors are also being cast in roles of disabled characters. Despite these developments, the issue of representation – what kind of characters these actors play – remains mostly unaddressed. The vast majority of characters with disabilities, whether they’re played by actors with disabilities or not, continue to represent the same outdated tropes. As a professor of theater and media who has written extensively on the elements of stage drama, I wonder: Are writers and directors finally poised to move beyond these narrative tropes? Breaking down the tropes Typically, the disabled characters are limited to four types: the “magical cripple,” the “evil cripple,” the “inspirational cripple” and the “redemptive cripple.” Magical cripples transcend the limitations of the human body and are almost divinelike. They make magical things happen for able-bodied characters. In many ways, the magical cripple functions like “the magical Negro,” a term popularized by director Spike Lee to describe Black characters who are usually impoverished but brimming with folk wisdom, which they selflessly bestow on existentially confused white characters. Like the magical Negro, the magical cripple is a plot device used to guide the lead character toward moral, intellectual or emotional enlightenment. The magical cripple doesn’t learn anything and doesn’t grow because he already is enlightened. In film, examples include Frank Slade, the blind army colonel who guides young Charlie through the perils of teenage love in 1992’s “Scent of a Woman.” Marvel’s Daredevil character is a perfect example of a magical cripple: A blind person imbued with supernatural abilities who can function above and beyond his physical limitations. Evil cripples represent a form of karmic punishment for the character’s wickedness. One of the most well-known is Shakespeare’s Richard III, the scheming hunchbacked king. In a 1916 essay, Sigmund Freud pointed to Richard as an example of the correlation between physical disabilities and “deformities of character.” The trope of the evil cripple is rooted in mythologies populated by half-man half-beasts who possess pathological and sadistic cravings. More recent examples of the evil cripple include Dr. Strangelove, Mini-Me from “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” and Bolivar Trask in “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” Then there are inspirational cripples, whose roles equate to what disability rights activist Stella Young calls “inspiration porn.” These stories center on disabled people accomplishing basic tasks or “overcoming” their disability. We see this in “Stronger,” which retells the story of Boston Marathon bombing survivor Jeff Bauman. Jake Gyllenhaal and Jeff Bauman walk a red carpet for ‘Stronger’ during the 12th Rome Film Fest on Oct. 28, 2017. Venturelli/WireImage In the inspirational narratives, disability is not a fact of life – a difference – but something one has to overcome to gain rightful sense of belonging in society. An offshoot of the inspirational narrative is the redemptive narrative, in which a disabled person either commits suicide or is killed. In movies like “Water for Elephants,” “Simon Birch” and “The Year of Living Dangerously,” disabled characters are sacrificed to prove their worth or to help the protagonist reach his goal. These characters serve as dramaturgical steppingstones. They are never partners or people in their own right, with their own drives and ambitions. They are not shown as deserving their own stories. The persistence of these tropes underlies the urgent need to reevaluate the makeup of writers and production teams. Who writes these parts is perhaps more important than who acts them. Beyond the hero’s journey There’s a reason these formulaic roles are so prevalent. For much of the past century, Hollywood storytelling has operated according to the hero’s journey, a dramatic structure that places the white male able-bodied character at the center of the story with atypical characters serving as “helpers” to support his goals. This narrative model has conditioned audiences to see the helpers as purely functional. The tropes based on this framework define the categories of belonging: who is and who isn’t human, whose life is worth living and whose isn’t. The one narrative journey that historically allowed the disabled to play a central role depicted them as working toward the symbolic reclamation of their dignity and humanity. In tragic narratives, this quest fails, and the characters either die or request euthanasia as a gesture of love toward their caretakers. “Million Dollar Baby” and “Me Before You” are two good examples of films in which disabled characters choose voluntary euthanasia, communicating the socially internalized low value of their own lives. But what if disabled characters already had dignity? What if no such quest were needed? What if their disability weren’t the thing to overcome but merely one element of one’s identity? This would require deconstructing the conceptual pyramid of past hierarchies, one that has long used disabled characters as props to illuminate conventional heroes. Carrie Mathison in the series “Homeland” can be thought of as representing this new approach. Carrie, played by Claire Danes, struggles with mental illness, and it affects her life and her work. But it is not something to overcome in a dramatic sense. Overcoming the disability is not the central theme of the series – it’s not the main obstacle to her goal. Carrie’s disability does give her some insights, but these come at a price and are not magical. [Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.] “Homeland” further breaks the mold by giving Carrie a helper who is an older white male – Saul Berenson, played by Mandy Patinkin. As we move towards greater gender and race inclusivity at work and in the arts, disability should not be left behind. More complex, more sophisticated stories and representations need to replace the simplistic, outdated and cliched tropes that have been consistently rewarded at the Oscars.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Magda Romanska, Emerson College. Read more:Rumors of Chris Pratt’s being a ‘MAGA Bro’ show how Twitter’s trending function can go haywireA brief history of invisibility on screenForever crooked: how everyday language reflects negative attitudes about the physically disabled Magda Romanska does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

  • Birx says COVID death toll in U.S. would have been mitigated with earlier action

    Dr. Deborah Birx, who coordinated the White House coronavirus task force under President Donald Trump, believes the COVID-19 death toll in the United States would have been substantially lower if the government had responded more effectively. In an interview with CNN, parts of which were released before broadcast later on Sunday, Birx said there was an "excuse" for the initial surge of deaths last year as the government grappled with the start of the pandemic. "There were about 100,000 deaths that came from that original surge," Birx said.

  • Dillian Whyte punishes Alexander Povetkin to claim revenge in fourth-round knockout

    The Briton moved a step closer to a world title after picking up the interim belt in Gibraltar

  • Suez Canal: US Navy to send expert team to assist with stuck Ever Given as latest refloating attempt fails

    Huge ship remains stuck sideways for fifth day

  • Trump was 'manifestly false' in claiming the Capitol rioters posed 'zero threat,' said his former chief of staff

    Trump claimed last week that the rioters on January 6 posed "zero threat" despite five people dying as a result of the attack.

  • Lil Nas X fires back after taking heat over his exclusive 'Satan Shoe' that contains drops of human blood

    South Dakota's governor slammed the shoe, which is a collaboration with the brand MSCHF, saying, "We are in a fight for the soul of our nation."

  • Sen. Lindsey Graham says preventing voters from receiving food or water while as they wait in line to cast ballots doesn't make 'a whole lot of sense'

    A new voting law signed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp last week prevents volunteers from handing out food or drinks to voters waiting in line.

  • Serial killer on federal death row dies at Indiana hospital

    A convicted serial killer whose victims included two young boys died Sunday at a hospital in Indiana, authorities said. Joseph Edward Duncan died at the medical center near United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute, where he was on death row, according to a statement from prosecutors in Riverside County, California. Duncan, 58, had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.

  • Slovak government crisis may be nearing end as PM offers to swap posts

    Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic has offered to swap roles with Finance Minister Eduard Heger, a proposal welcomed by the coalition parties and which could resolve a month-long government crisis. Slovakia has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the crisis erupted on March 1 after Matovic ordered a shipment of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine without his coalition partners' knowledge. "Today at the OLANO leadership meeting, I also proposed a swap between me and Eduard Heger as finance minister," he said.

  • Pope, on Palm Sunday, says devil taking advantage of pandemic

    Pope Francis led Palm Sunday services in an almost empty St. Peter's Basilica because of coronavirus restrictions for the second consecutive year and said the devil is taking advantage of the pandemic. In pre-coronavirus times, Palm Sunday, which marks the start of Holy Week and leads to Easter, tens of thousands of people would pack St. Peter's Square holding olive branches and intricately woven palm fronds in an outdoor ceremony. "The Devil is taking advantage of the crisis to sow distrust, desperation and discord," he said, adding that the pandemic had brought physical, psychological and spiritual suffering.