Robert

Robert "Mike" Williams is an intelligent, thirteen-year old African-American that lives in South side Chicago. For most students going to and from school is an everyday routine. But for Mike, it is a life-threatening chore. Five days a week Mike has to wake up early, do his routine, and leave for school; Mike's route to get to school is long and secluded, but in a place with such high gang activity, it is extremely dangerous. At any time there could be a shootout between gangs, and at any corner could be a mugger. One day while he was walking home from school, he passed through an alleyway and heard a gunshot and saw two men running out of a building. The two men must have thought that Robert had seen them commit the crime because they started to chase him. Scared out of his mind, Robert tried to hide behind a Dumpster to get away from the gangsters. Robert saw a man walking in the alleyway up ahead. Robert yelled and yelled for the man to help, but the man just took one look at Robert, saw trouble, and ran away. The gangsters caught up with Robert and covered his mouth to keep him from screaming. They began to punch and kick Robert; they were killing him. When both of the killers were done, they shot Robert in the heart. Robert was alive when the gangsters ran away, in fact, he was alive for almost three hours before he died of massive blood loss and the lack of oxygen to his brain. Robert's death could have been avoided if the man that saw Robert would have helped him. If you saw someone who is in a deadly situation that you could help and maybe save, would you take that risk? If that man had only called for an ambulance, Robert would still be alive today.

When people see something like a fight, they are intrigued to watch and see the result. Only a small amount of people in this situation would intervene and either helps one of the people or try to break the fight up. These people are the ones that will take up the responsibility to control the outcome of the conflict. The man in this story was an example of someone that will only watch to see what happens. Had that man in the alley been a brave risk taker, Robert's life may have been saved. That man in the alley must have had a reason to not help Robert

I think that the man in the alley in this story was afraid to help Robert for several reasons. "Robert "Mike" Williams is an intelligent, thirteen-year old African-American that lives in South side Chicago." My first reason that the man didn't help is that Robert is an African-American. That man may have been racist and chose not to help Robert because of the color of his skin, but the