What Would You Do?

On a rainy morning in September 2006, a 19-year-old Utah man was headed to work. He was traveling on Utah’s Route 30, headed from Tremonton to Logan. Headed in the opposite direction was a car containing two men. They were also headed to work. James Furfaro and Keith O’Dell were fathers and husbands. They were also rocket scientists. The teenager, named Reggie Shaw, had just finished texting his girlfriend. Due to his attention to texting and inattention to driving, he had drifted over the center line and into the opposite lane of traffic. Shaw’s car clipped the Furfaro/O’Dell car. The car carrying the scientists spun out of control and was broadsided by a truck that had been behind Shaw. Furfaro and O’Dell died instantly and violently. 

A book titled “A Deadly Wandering” by Matt Richtel discusses that accident and takes a deep dive into the neuroscience regarding how our minds work when we are distracted. That accident started a groundswell to make texting while driving illegal. In 2006, no state had a law forbidding it. Initially, Shaw and his family tried mightily to avoid criminal responsibility. Principally, Shaw’s mother did everything she could to keep her son from facing criminal charges. I read the book years ago. The book is interesting, but it jumps from accident investigation and forensics to neuroscience to families in pain and back to Shaw. What I couldn't get out of my mind was being disgusted with Shaw's family throwing up roadblocks in an attempt to shield Reggie from responsibility.  

Following Tyler Robinson’s arrest for allegedly murdering Charlie Kirk, we learned that Robinson's family, principally his father, was instrumental in Robinson’s arrest. I thought about Reggie Shaw and how his family circled the wagons – first refusing to accept that Reggie had been criminally negligent when he killed two men. Shaw denied that he had been texting, claiming that the accident was just an accident. He claimed that his vehicle had “hydroplaned.” No one was to blame, the family claimed. The police didn’t believe him. Faced with overwhelming and damning evidence to the contrary, Reggie and his family finally accepted responsibility. Had the police not confronted Reggie with “overwhelming evidence,” would he and his family have accepted responsibility? I have my doubts. Richtel wrote:

“[T]he intensity with which the ­family undertook the defense had a self-perpetuating and escalating force: Reggie denied texting, the family backed him up and Reggie, never someone to let others down, dug deeper.”

Juxtapose the Shaw family and its defense of Reggie with how the Robinson family handled Tyler allegedly murdering Charlie Kirk. The former circled their wagons. The latter turned their son in. It’s hard to imagine how any of us would react under the same circumstances. On our sister site PJ Media, Scott Pinsker pondered that question – couching it as an impossible choice. A “lose-lose”  

[T]wo groups of people were ensnared in a God-awful moral vise.  

It was the ultimate lose-lose, Catch-22. 

The first group was the mother and father of Tyler Robinson, the alleged murderer of Charlie Kirk. (Although I’m pretty sure we’ll soon be able to drop “alleged” from his preamble.) As a father of two, I simply can’t fathom being placed in a situation where my child has done something so shocking and heinous that my moral obligation would be to turn him over to law authorities who’ve already declared their intent to seek the death penalty.

My wife and I have adult sons, all of whom are productive and moral members of society. What would I do if one of them committed a heinous, senseless murder? Would I “support” him? Or, would my moral compass require that I turn him in? 

I do not doubt that if someone had put that question to Tyler Robinson’s father two years ago, he would have said that the question is simply absurd. An impossible scenario. His son would never commit such an act. Yet, his son (allegedly) did. The mugshot shows Tyler with eyes cast down. Dead eyes. Who or what caused Tyler to turn into a monster? Tyler has now been formally charged with Charlie Kirk's murder. I know what I would have done if Tyler were my son.    

What would you?