Rochester's Barracuda
The barracuda is a ray-finned fish known for its large size, fearsome appearance and ferocious behavior.
It was 2007 and I was living in Phoenix, Arizona. A serious horseback riding accident and several other situations led me to make a hard decision.... come back home. It felt good being home. I spent the first couple of weeks catching up with old friends. One of the people I visited was a woman who was a constant in my life while I was growing up. Mrs. Slater lived across the street from my childhood home on Bernard St. I learned she had some severe health issues and was wheelchair bound. She told me her son Jimmy had returned to Rochester from North Carolina to take care of her. She made me call him at work. We talked for a bit and made plans to get together soon. Unfortunately, that never happened....
Jimmy was working as a community organizer for Action for a Better Community. He attended a stop the violence meeting, but became a victim of violence on his way home that night. Jimmy was shot to death 50 feet from his front door. It is believed he was shot for a small amount of cash and a cell phone. I received the call from his niece that he was gone. I arrived at Mrs. Slater's house and began two very difficult tasks. One - she asked me to go to the Medical Examiner's office to ID Jimmy (something I never want to do again) and Two - Be the spokesperson for the family because she knew it would be a high profile case because of his work in the community. She wanted to ensure the information being shared was consistent and that Rochester knew exactly who Jimmy was.
Enter in the Barracuda.........
Mrs. Slater wasn't ready to release a statement yet, so I posted up in the yard, letting all of the reporters know I would be serving as the spokesperson for the family and we wouldn't be talking to the press yet, but if they left their number I would call them when we were ready. All of the reporters accepted that answer with exception of one....The Barracuda (a name she was given at Channel 13 per a former co-worker) aka Rachel Barnhart! She pushed and pushed to get me to make a statement or have someone in the family come out to talk to her. She was downright disrespectful! I literally had to start moving towards her and she if she hadn't backed up I would have been nose to nose with her! She finally left the yard and I didn't call her when the family was ready. I told her I wouldn't. Another reporter was assigned from that point on.
A year later, the Barracuda bit again!!! My nephew Yasin Yawn was shot while sitting in his car on Thurston Rd (still an open case). It didn't look good that he would survive, but the family wasn't going to give up. Lot's of prayers were going up by the family and the entire Rochester community. I went to the hospital to check in. Yasin was on a ventilator and several other machines. Almost simultaneously, all of our cell phones and pagers started ringing! People were calling with their condolences for our loss. We were in shock as we started calling people back while watching his chest go up and down! They said it had been announced on the news that he had passed away. I excused myself from the room so I could get to the bottom of what happened. Apparently, the Rochester Police Dept had sent out a press release saying Yasin had died. I contacted all of the news agencies to advise this wasn't the case. They all apologized for the mistake, but pointed the fingers at RPD. Only one station, Channel 8, retracted the story and one station, Channel 13 took it in a whole different direction! The Barracuda argued with me on the phone. She said she was trying to teach me the difference between being brain dead and dead. At this point, she is VERY lucky she wasn't physically present as she was in that yard on Bernard St a year earlier. There would be no way I could've been held responsible for my actions!! Yasin was removed from life support a few days later and passed away.
A couple of years ago, the Barracuda and I got into a Twitter beef. She said I was only upset with her because she was going hard on Mayor Warren who I support 100%. She called me a liar, threatened to report me to my employer and then blocked me on Twitter. RACHEL BARNHART IS DELUSIONAL!!!!! I watched her being interviewed yesterday on the news and think there may be some other things going on with her as well. She was raving like a manic!!! I think she is so desperate to be mayor, be relevant, be anything, she will do or say anything! I try to go high when they go low and promote my candidate by sharing all of the positive things she has done and will continue to do. Since Rachel has never done anything and there is no way in hell she will even come close to win the primary, I can only pray she gets the help she needs!
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