Bowie University Student Stabs Roommate During Fight Over Music on Ipod

Today in Bowie Maryland, Bowie State University played its Homecoming Game against the Livingstone”s College Blue Bears. Two young Bowie Bulldogs were missing from the stadium; two voices were not heard in the cheering crowd. One of the voices has forever been silenced. It belonged to a beautiful, intelligent, young woman who was not sitting on the bleachers; she was lying on a cold metal slab in a refrigerator or on a table at the funeral home. Tomorrow she would have celebrated her nineteenth birthday. She was her mothers only child, her name was Dominquez Frasier she was an 18-year old freshmen at BSU; she was from Washington, DC. The other voice missing from the cheering Bowie students is quiet not silent. It belongs to another beautiful, intelligent young woman. The metal bars in the jail cell where she now sits leave no room for gregariousness, smiles or Bulldog pride. She is 19-year old freshman at Bowie State University, her name is Alexis Simpson and she is from District Heights, Maryland.

The destiny of these two women began at the beginning of the school year when they became roommates in the Christie McAuliffe Dormitory on the campus of more than 5,000 students. It came to a climax On Thursday, September 15, 2011. The two women had a disagreement over music played on an IPod. The disagreement turned into an argument that lasted for several days. On Thursday evening the women and the voices confronted each, the argument went terribly out of control and tempers flared. Frazier was said to have been in her room listening to music on her IPod when Alexis turned it off. When asked to turn the music back on Alexis said no. Alexis and Frazier began arguing and later fighting in the hall before Alexis left and returned with a knife. She stabbed Dominique in the upper body; witnesses said that Dominique grabbed her throat and collapsed to the floor where the police found her when they arrived. She was taken to Prince Georges’ Hospital efforts to revive her were unsuccessful, she was pronounced dead at 8:44 pm.

Both young women had looked forward to the weekend; homecoming is one of the most anticipated social events of the year. The murder of Dominique by Alexis on campus shocked the students and dampened the mood for celebration. It made many students take pause and reflect on the frailty of life and the fine line time the voice of life and the silence of death.

As adults we should be reminded that our young people need our guidance early in life; that we need to teach them the value of the precious gift of life and not the value of things like IPods and music. We need to teach them about resolution not desolation, about compromise not retaliation, about talking and not yelling about giving and not taking and bout listening and not just hearing. Dominique’s death reminds us that many of our young people have little self control and that we must take some responsibility for exhibiting a lack of it sometimes ourselves. We must lead by example and not rules alone.

Simpson is said to be remorseful for her actions, but the taking of a life cannot be reversed it is a final act with forever consequences. She is reported to have said that she did not mean to do it and that others did not know what she had been through. What could have been that bad, what could have made her that mad, what could have pushed her so far that she could not turn around?

I am sad for Dominique’s mother, she is said to have known of a problem with her daughter’s roommate but Dominique asked her mom not to worry, and told everything would be okay. Surely Dominique never imagined that arguments with her roommate over music on an IPod will cost her life.

I am sad for Alexis’s family, surely she did not think through her anger before grabbing a knife and thrusting it into Dominique’s body. Alexis’s family will still get to see her smile and hear her voice, but will not be free. Emotionally she must live with what she has done and that sentence is often harsher than the one the courts pass down.

We must pray and guide our young people; if they grow up with more self confidence they will have more respect for themselves and for the precious gift of life. Perhaps then the shedding of tears over the death of Dominique and the loss of the bright future for Alexis will no longer be necessary.

Note: Alexis Simpson is being held has been charged with murder and is being held in the Prince George’s County jail without bail.


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