Media Reports on Roger Lewis' Student, Amir Gray

[Steve Marcus]

Article published in the South Bend Tribune May 25, 2007

Tuba player prepares to go on tour after injury

GARY, Ind. (AP) — A teenage tuba player is preparing for a European summer tour after a mugging that came close to damaging his young career. Amir Gray, a senior at the Emerson School of Visual and Performing Arts who has been admitted to the Indiana University School of Music, is scheduled to tour with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra during June 13-24.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance. How many kids get to tour Europe with a symphony?" said Gary School Board President Alex Wheeler Jr., who is holding a fundraiser Friday at Gary West Side High School to raise $4,000 needed for Gray's tour.

Gray's family still owes $2,000 on the $11,000 tuba — his second — that he now plays and that triggered the March 18 attack that left him with a fading gash and bite mark on his face.

The 18-year-old was riding a South Shore commuter train to a practice with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra when some other riders said he and his tuba were taking up too much room on the train. When he refused to be separated from his instrument, a woman bit his ear and a teenage boy hit him in the head with a glass bottle, cutting his cheek.

"It just missed a nerve that could have affected his lips," said his mother, Kitten Gray.

When he was placed on a stretcher after being injured, Amir was asking for his tuba, his mother said. "Even then he was so focused on the music," she said.

"I'm very excited to tour. I just want to play all music," Amir Gray said. "I'd like to eventually have my own jazz band and work with a national symphony."

Amir is reputed to be an excellent musician; tuba is the primary instrument of the eight that he plays.

[iiipopes]

In the state where I live, that attack would be considered 1st degree assault with the same penalty range as 2nd degree murder because of the potential life debilitating effects. I hope the prosecutors in Indiana responsible for bringing this incident to justice approach their duty the same way.

[tubafatness]

That sucks! I hope he's doing all right. I remember Amir well from my two times at the IU C.A.P. camp. At least it looks like his tuba and tuba playing equipment didn't get injured. Those people who attacked him are a bunch of animals, if you ask me.

[Alex Reeder]

When he was placed on a stretcher after being injured, Amir was asking for his tuba, his mother said. "Even then he was so focused on the music," she said.

I know what that is like. I got a concussion snowboarding a year and a half ago, and I had amnesia and only about a three minute memory for about a day. My parents say I was really scared about forgetting how to play the tuba, and I would lie there fingering scales over and over again. I was trying to go through them all, but because I couldn't remember what I had just been doing, I ended up fingering the C blues scale hundreds of times.

It is pretty funny now, but it was scary then. I'm glad this kid is OK, and wish him luck. My youth orchestra toured the year before I got there and the year after I left so I missed it! Have a great time!

[jonesbrass]

What the heck is wrong with this country when this kind of thing can go on? Is despicable that it happens, but I wonder if the other people on the train tried to intervene on Amirs behalf. The only thing necessary for evil to prevail is for good people to see evil and do nothing. Sad. Best of luck to him.

[MikeMason]

I agree with you Jonesy, but, how 'bout some legal clarification in each state of what a citizen can do to help another,without fear of legal repercussions?Helping a victim could cost you years of legal hassle and if you lose,lots of money(actually,even if you don't lose,hundreds of hours of lost productivity,which the probably unemployed perps certainly won't care about, will cost you thousands).If the jury all look like the perp.,you could well lose regardless of the facts.In Alexander City,Alabama, we still help old ladies cross our 2 intersections .

[TubaRay]

This sort of stuff pisses me off...

Me, too. As much as it pains me to have to agree with you, I still do.

[TubaRay]

I agree with you Jonesy, but, how 'bout some legal clarification in each state of what a citizen can do to help another,without fear of legal repercussions?Helping a victim could cost you years of legal hassle and if you lose,lots of money(actually,even if you don't lose,hundreds of hours of lost productivity,which the probably unemployed perps certainly won't care about, will cost you thousands).If the jury all look like the perp.,you could well lose regardless of the facts.In Alexander City,Alabama, we still help old ladies cross our 2 intersections .

Unfortunately, this is very true. Not as serious a matter, but several years ago my wife witnessed a traffic accident which occured directly in front of her. She was waiting to exit a parking lot and a car rear-ended another waiting a a traffic light. She came forth as a witness. The net result was that the guy who rear-ended the other car collected on our insurance saying that my wife had caused the accident because he thought he had to avoid my wife's car(which was entirely on the private property of the parking lot)(It was a church parking lot, by the way).

You raise a valid point, and one which needs to be addressed by our legislators.

[Steve Inman]

No, Sean, don't "lock" the friggin' thread!

' too bad Amir wasn't carryin' heat. He likely could have avoided a very dangerous animal bite injury, avoided disfiguring marks, and (with a particularly good aim) who knows how much could have been saved in required revenue generation that he and the rest of us will have to cough up to support the human debris (perps) and their potential offspring.

This sort of stuff pisses me off...

Doesn't even require good aim. An attack of that sort may possibly be prevented by simply waving your Glock muzzle toward the perps in a friendly, Hoosier manner .... with finger close to the trigger, just in case they "just don't get it" .....

Cheers,

[RyanSchultz]

Best wished for a speedy recovery, Amir.

Yikes!

[jonesbrass]

You do make very good points about the legal ramifications of standing up for the innocent, but call me old fashioned. If I see unwarrented physical violence being applied to an innocent person, especially a woman, child, or elderly person, I see it as my duty as a human being to help in any prudent way possible. If our society has become so screwed up as to paint THAT as illegal or immoral, it does not bode well for us.

[MikeMason]

I wouldn't stand by either,just examining all angles.Just 'cause tubas play out of tune,with the wrong sound,and are heavy doesn't mean I don't want to hold and caress them all