When nine-year-old Christina Taylor was murdered during the shooting in Tucson, Arizona, that critically wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the media spent no shortage of time mourning the girl’s tragic death.

 

When Brisenia Flores, also nine, was murdered in cold blood by anti-immigration vigilantes, also in Arizona, news outlets barely gave the story any attention.

 

Some observers have wondered if Flores’ story was ignored because she wasn’t white, like Taylor.

 

Flores was killed on May 30, 2009, when Shawna Forde and two men broke into the girl’s father’s mobile home in the middle of the night and shot her dead along with her father, Raul. Forde, the head of the Minutemen American Defense border group, had hoped to rob Raul Flores, whom she and her companions suspected of being a drug dealer, in order to finance their organization. However, they found no drugs and no money.

 

Flores’ mother, Gina Gonzalez, survived the shooting and told jurors during Forde’s trial that her daughter begged for her life before she was shot twice in the head. Gonzalez’s testimony was so heartbreaking that the jury asked to meet with her after the trial to express their sympathy, and half of the jurors inquired about post-trial recovery counseling for themselves.

 

Forde was convicted of first-degree murder on February 14 and sentenced to death. The alleged gunman, Jason Bush, will go on trial March 15, while the trial of Forde and Bush’s accomplice, Albert Gaxiola, is scheduled for June 1.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Brisenia Flores Was a Victim of Border Vigilantes and Media Indifference (by Raul Reyes, Huffington Post)

'Please Don't Shoot Me:' Girl, Nine, Begged for Her Life Before She and Her Father Were Shot Dead by 'Anti-Immigrant Vigilantes' (Daily Mail)

Forde Given Death in Slaying of Girl, Father (by Kim Smith, Arizona Daily Star)

Shawna Forde Convicted of Plotting Murder in Arizona (by Scott North, Everett Herald Net)