Trigger Warning – Definitely a Sad Post 🙁

Street harassment sometimes ends in murder, a pointless end to a life.  The cases I’ve read about have been similar – the harasser kills the woman he was harassing. It is the worst way a harassment incident can end.

Yesterday on the HollaBack DC! site, I read about another harassment incident that ended in murder. This time the person killed was the husband of the woman experiencing the harassment. From HollaBack DC!

Yesterday we received this email:

Hey Holla Back DC, I’m an Arlington resident originally from New Orleans.  A friend of a friend was murdered in the french quarter over the weekend because some a-hole was yelling at his wife.  She ignored and the harasser didn’t like that.

The comments by Tigers119 tell the story of what happened beyond the shoddy TP reporting. I don’t expect y’all or any other hollaback outlet to publish anything, but I needed to share this story with people who actually care and WON’T try to blame the widow.

Even though this happened in NOLA, we recently spent time in New Orleans and wanted to share this with the DC community. Our hearts go out to the widow. Catcalling should NEVER lead to murder.

Here is the report from nola.com:

A 23-year-old Metairie man died from stab wounds Sunday after getting into an argument with a motorist in the French Quarter.

Coroner’s Office investigator John Gagliano identified the victim as Ryan Lekosky.

The incident occurred at the intersection of Dauphine and Iberville Streets, shortly after 3:30 a.m. when Lekosky and his wife were walking on the sidewalk when a man drove alongside them and allegedly began yelling inappropriate comments about Lekosky’s wife, New Orleans police said.

Lekosky’s wife confronted the man and the two began fighting. Lekosky was stabbed several times when he tried to break up the struggle, police said.

Continue reading.

This is truly devastating. And of course there will be people who will say she shouldn’t have responded, she aggravated the situation; it’s her fault her husband is dead. But it IS NOT. The harasser/murderer is at fault for starting the whole thing and then escalating it. If we always walk silently by when men harass us, if we learn to avoid public places where it occurs, then the harassers win. We have the right to be in public and it is our right to confront our harassers, if we wish, to tell them so.

My heart goes out to her, a widow because of a street harasser.