Passersby rescued her children from the car which had been driven into about three feet of water and an active surf. The focus in the news has been on the awfulness of the probable outcome if someone had not saved her from what her mind was telling her to do. It certainly would have been a sad and terrible outcome if her children had been drowned with her but are we missing the point that this woman was trying to kill herself? That she couldn’t see any other hope for her children other than to take them with her? As usual, when someone black does something there is rarely the benefit of the doubt given. It is often assumed that there is criminal intent. One news report headlined that she was “wildly driving the car into the water”. How do you wildly drive in sand and water?

Recent news reports state that Wilkerson was a victim of domestic violence. An injunction has been issued against her husband, Lutful Ronjon, filed by her sister, Jennifer Harrell, who reported having been threatened with a knife when she attempted to interfere with  Ronjon strangling her sister on a previous occasion.

Any of us could be faced with a similar situation