WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.020 Alright, picture this. It's early morning, May 00:00:03.020 --> 00:00:08.080 11th, 2016. District Heights, Maryland. Most 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:10.839 people are still tucked in bed, you know. But 00:00:10.839 --> 00:00:14.279 just after 4 .20am, everything changes in an 00:00:14.279 --> 00:00:18.079 instant. Police get a call, shots fired, that's 00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:21.640 all anyone really hears at first, out near Aztec 00:00:21.640 --> 00:00:24.339 Drive and Gateway Boulevard. And right there, 00:00:24.420 --> 00:00:27.239 a car has crashed into a tree. It's a jarring 00:00:27.239 --> 00:00:30.750 scene. Inside that car, they find Samuel Page. 00:00:31.170 --> 00:00:35.450 He's only 27, shot, pronounced dead right there. 00:00:35.869 --> 00:00:40.170 It just, it stops you thinking how fast things 00:00:40.170 --> 00:00:45.009 unravel. He probably never saw it coming. But 00:00:45.009 --> 00:00:47.409 the story doesn't even end at that twisted metal 00:00:47.409 --> 00:00:50.289 and flashing lights. A block away, on Halleck 00:00:50.289 --> 00:00:53.869 Street, police find another young man, 26 -year 00:00:53.869 --> 00:00:57.159 -old Kevin Muse. He's shot too, taken to the 00:00:57.159 --> 00:00:59.899 hospital, but he doesn't make it. The sense that 00:00:59.899 --> 00:01:02.659 comes over the area, it's like a wave. Shock. 00:01:03.479 --> 00:01:06.819 Confusion. Then fear. Police work quickly, and 00:01:06.819 --> 00:01:09.299 one thing is clear. They don't think this is 00:01:09.299 --> 00:01:12.099 some random thing. No, investigators are talking 00:01:12.099 --> 00:01:15.359 about a targeted attack. A robbery gone lethal. 00:01:15.900 --> 00:01:19.159 I always get hung up right here. Because targeted 00:01:19.159 --> 00:01:21.900 robbery. What does that even really mean, you 00:01:21.900 --> 00:01:24.560 know? Was it planned? Was it some long feud? 00:01:24.680 --> 00:01:26.780 Or just a mistake that should have never happened? 00:01:28.299 --> 00:01:30.920 Here's something that stands out. Law enforcement 00:01:30.920 --> 00:01:34.120 says there was a third person in the car. Not 00:01:34.120 --> 00:01:36.799 a lot has been revealed about them, but by every 00:01:36.799 --> 00:01:39.859 account, they survived. They made it out alive 00:01:39.859 --> 00:01:43.000 from whatever happened, whatever chaos exploded 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:45.760 in those early morning minutes. There's got to 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:48.439 be a story there, but it's one of the many pieces 00:01:48.439 --> 00:01:52.879 that still don't fit. So, so many gaps. I mean, 00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:56.560 we know police responded within minutes, gunshots 00:01:56.560 --> 00:02:00.340 just after 4, 20 a .m., car already wrecked, 00:02:00.340 --> 00:02:04.260 two men down, but the why and the who is so much 00:02:04.260 --> 00:02:08.879 murkier than we'd ever want. When we talk about 00:02:08.879 --> 00:02:11.240 these cases, it's really easy to get hung up 00:02:11.240 --> 00:02:14.620 on just the facts. The headlines, the police 00:02:14.620 --> 00:02:17.800 statements, the cold clinical details about time 00:02:17.800 --> 00:02:22.050 and place. But sometimes I gotta pause. and just 00:02:22.050 --> 00:02:24.889 think about the lives, the people at the heart 00:02:24.889 --> 00:02:29.110 of it. Samuel Page, Kevin Muse, they weren't 00:02:29.110 --> 00:02:33.110 just names. Kevin, his friends called him a real 00:02:33.110 --> 00:02:36.349 good guy, never caused any trouble. Lately, I 00:02:36.349 --> 00:02:38.550 keep hearing from folks who say he just had a 00:02:38.550 --> 00:02:41.729 kid. I mean, that just guts me, because there's 00:02:41.729 --> 00:02:44.389 a new father missing out on his own story, and 00:02:44.389 --> 00:02:46.509 a child growing up with that empty space where 00:02:46.509 --> 00:02:51.629 their dad should be. The Grief god you could 00:02:51.629 --> 00:02:55.129 feel it in the air on that morning loved ones 00:02:55.129 --> 00:02:58.550 are on the ground sobbing holding on to each 00:02:58.550 --> 00:03:01.650 other just to stand up this isn't the kind of 00:03:01.650 --> 00:03:04.129 wound that fades and it doesn't just touch two 00:03:04.129 --> 00:03:07.150 families it ripples through the whole neighborhood 00:03:07.150 --> 00:03:11.629 i saw it firsthand not in district heights but 00:03:11.629 --> 00:03:14.969 up in baltimore a while back talking to a mom 00:03:14.969 --> 00:03:17.509 who had just lost her son in another case that 00:03:17.509 --> 00:03:22.009 frankly felt just like this. That conversation. 00:03:23.129 --> 00:03:25.550 She told me there were mornings she couldn't 00:03:25.550 --> 00:03:28.530 even roll out of bed, but sometimes she'd look 00:03:28.530 --> 00:03:31.729 outside and see neighbors leaving flowers, strangers 00:03:31.729 --> 00:03:34.569 watching over her house. There's a paralysis, 00:03:34.750 --> 00:03:39.129 but also this drive to do something, to find 00:03:39.129 --> 00:03:41.710 answers not just for yourself, but for your whole 00:03:41.710 --> 00:03:45.780 block. Law enforcement tries to tap into that 00:03:45.780 --> 00:03:49.280 need for answers. They put out the appeals. $25 00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:52.080 ,000 reward for information that leads to an 00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:55.159 arrest and indictment. That's not nothing, but 00:03:55.159 --> 00:03:57.780 after seven, eight years, the phone lines haven't 00:03:57.780 --> 00:04:00.419 blown up the way folks hoped. Still, you get 00:04:00.419 --> 00:04:03.719 these vigils, gatherings near the scene, people 00:04:03.719 --> 00:04:06.419 lighting candles, saying names out loud so they 00:04:06.419 --> 00:04:09.539 don't vanish. I think about how gathering can 00:04:09.539 --> 00:04:13.389 help. A reminder that silence isn't acceptance. 00:04:14.289 --> 00:04:17.029 But the question I always wrestle with, every 00:04:17.029 --> 00:04:20.009 time, is why it's so hard to break that silence. 00:04:20.629 --> 00:04:23.310 Why do people know things and still hang back? 00:04:23.730 --> 00:04:27.470 Is it fear? Is it mistrust? I don't always have 00:04:27.470 --> 00:04:30.550 answers, but I get why the questions haunt families 00:04:30.550 --> 00:04:34.889 for so long. So let's talk about what we actually 00:04:34.889 --> 00:04:37.370 know now, all these years later. Police have 00:04:37.370 --> 00:04:39.610 said, from the very start, they didn't think 00:04:39.610 --> 00:04:42.490 this was just a random crime. Something about 00:04:42.490 --> 00:04:45.569 the way things unfolded, the connections between 00:04:45.569 --> 00:04:48.189 folks, law enforcement's been clear on that. 00:04:49.009 --> 00:04:51.930 Robbery was the motive. But it wasn't a spur 00:04:51.930 --> 00:04:54.829 -of -the -moment thing. Not by their read. What 00:04:54.829 --> 00:04:58.230 gets me is, despite all that, there's still no 00:04:58.230 --> 00:05:02.610 suspect named, no charges filed, nothing public 00:05:02.610 --> 00:05:04.889 about who actually pulled the trigger or why. 00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:08.560 The only tools left for investigators, it seems, 00:05:08.740 --> 00:05:11.639 are community tips, crime solvers' hotlines, 00:05:11.819 --> 00:05:14.860 that whole anonymous thing. They've banged that 00:05:14.860 --> 00:05:20.459 drum, 1 -866 -411 -TIPS. The website, the numbers 00:05:20.459 --> 00:05:23.639 on the flyers. I'm not saying it's ineffective, 00:05:23.980 --> 00:05:26.639 but it's clear that something is still missing. 00:05:27.139 --> 00:05:29.779 The police even floated early on that they believed 00:05:29.779 --> 00:05:32.620 they knew who was responsible. But here we are, 00:05:32.779 --> 00:05:37.410 no arrests. Sometimes I wonder, what keeps a 00:05:37.410 --> 00:05:41.149 case like Samuel Pages from moving forward? Lack 00:05:41.149 --> 00:05:44.850 of evidence? Witnesses too scared, maybe? Or 00:05:44.850 --> 00:05:47.550 maybe they just don't trust the system, especially 00:05:47.550 --> 00:05:51.790 after so long. And that gets at something bigger, 00:05:51.910 --> 00:05:55.589 right? These cases, Samuel, Kevin, so many others, 00:05:55.829 --> 00:05:58.930 they hit a wall unless someone steps up. The 00:05:58.930 --> 00:06:01.750 police do what they can, but at a certain point, 00:06:01.769 --> 00:06:04.589 it's the community or even listeners like you 00:06:04.589 --> 00:06:07.509 who might hold the missing piece. Maybe you know 00:06:07.509 --> 00:06:09.889 something. Maybe you don't realize it's important. 00:06:10.370 --> 00:06:12.750 But these stories, they don't close themselves. 00:06:13.050 --> 00:06:15.910 They need courage, and sometimes that means a 00:06:15.910 --> 00:06:18.670 phone call, a tip, or just keeping the memories 00:06:18.670 --> 00:06:20.990 alive so these men aren't lost in the noise. 00:06:22.629 --> 00:06:25.459 That's it for today's episode. The questions 00:06:25.459 --> 00:06:28.920 remain and the search continues because every 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:32.480 lost soul deserves answers and every story deserves 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:36.100 to be heard. What are your thoughts? What do 00:06:36.100 --> 00:06:39.240 you believe happened? Share your voice because 00:06:39.240 --> 00:06:42.259 sometimes the smallest detail can spark the biggest 00:06:42.259 --> 00:06:45.980 breakthrough. I'm Sammy and this is Beyond the 00:06:45.980 --> 00:06:49.620 Silence Whispers Across America. Thank you for 00:06:49.620 --> 00:06:51.959 listening. Stay safe and I'll see you next time.