How did a good boy’s life go so terribly wrong?
Lives upended
Re “Pool party gunman called ex-girlfriend during deadly rampage” (sacbee.com, May 2): Somewhere on the journey, life got tough for Peter Selis, the man who was shot dead by police in San Diego after he shot and killed one woman and wounded six others.
He needed help. Either he didn’t ask or it wasn’t offered, maybe both. And now we are left with two people dead, several injured, and dozens of lives scarred by this brutal and senseless conclusion to a life that started as a gift and a blessing.
I am a teacher at Ponderosa High School in Shingle Springs. But in 1981 I was a coach at Allied Gardens-Del Cerro Senior League, not far from San Diego State University, and Peter Selis was on my team. I am deeply grieved because it is too late to help the Peter Selis I knew as a 13-year-old baseball player.
To our team he was “Hollywood,” the kid who dove for every ball and slid into all four bases on one crazy play. This is the tragic epitaph for a life that should have yielded a more uplifting and encouraging legacy.
What can we take from this? If you need help, ask; if you can help, offer. What we often rationalize as “someone else’s responsibility” eventually produces consequences we all reap.
Peter Cavaghan, Cameron Park
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This story was originally published May 6, 2017 at 5:00 AM with the headline "How did a good boy’s life go so terribly wrong?."