Another sniper, another time: Charles

Another sniper, another time
: Charles Cohen survived the Walk of Death sniper in Camden, NJ 53 years ago but lost his mother, father, and grandmother to a Bible-toting gun nut. In a strong story in today’s Star-Ledger he talks about the memories this latest sniper is digging up.

Every time a serial killer strikes, Cohen is 12 years old again, cowering in the corner of his bedroom closet. He hears his mother’s frantic cries as if she were in the next room. “Hide, Charles! Hide!” He hears the shotgun blasts outside. He sees the bodies in the street….

“I know the victims are children and parents and husbands and wives, and I know the devastation their families are going through,” he said. “You never stop asking why. Why him? Why her? What set this off? There’s nothing you can do, so there’s total frustration. Total rage.

“They’ll start questioning God, but this has nothing to do with God,” Cohen said. “This is man. And sometimes there are no answers for the terrible things man does.”