The Goodness of America
Woman Offers Serenity to Dying Teen
When Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death before dozens of witnesses who failed to offer or seek proper aid for the young victim in 1964, Americans began to question whether the days of good Samaritanism were gone. However, stories like that involving Officer Quathisha Epps of the New York Police Department reaffirm that goodness continues to pervade this sad world.
Two summers ago, Police Officer Epps was off-duty and spending time with her family in her Eldridge Street apartment when she heard gunfire outside of her home. Immediately, she secured the safety of her own children before she ran outside in her nightgown, carrying towels, to provide last-minute comfort to a dying 17-year-old boy who had been shot.
“Baby, who did this to you?” she asked the young victim, Vincent Cruz, who was shot in the neck. She applied towels to Cruz’s bleeding neck and applied pressure to his wounds, but knew that there was no hope for the child. The wound would be fatal.
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