Kitty Genovese For The New Millennium

Actually, this case from Wichita, Kansas makes the 38 witnesses to the Kitty Genovese murder look good. Those people did nothing while a madman stabbed Kitty Genovese to death. That's bad. But the witnesses in Wichita actually did something. That makes it worse.

They stepped over the stabbing victim to continue shopping and took pictures with a cell phone.

WICHITA, Kan. - As stabbing victim LaShanda Calloway lay dying on the floor of a convenience store, five shoppers, including one who stopped to take a picture of her with a cell phone, stepped over the woman, police said.

The June 23 situation, captured on the store's surveillance video, got scant news coverage until a columnist for The Wichita Eagle disclosed the existence of the video and its contents Tuesday.

Police have refused to release the video, saying it is part of their investigation.

"It was tragic to watch," police spokesman Gordon Bassham said Tuesday. "The fact that people were more interested in taking a picture with a cell phone and shopping for snacks rather than helping this innocent young woman is, frankly, revolting."

The woman was stabbed during an altercation that was not part of a robbery, Bassham said. It took about two minutes for someone to call 911, he said.

Calloway, 27, died later at a hospital.

Two suspects have been arrested. A 19-year-old woman was charged with first-degree murder. Another suspect who turned himself in had not been charged as of Tuesday, the Sedgwick County prosecutor's office said.

Revolting is much too mild a word. What those people did may not have broken any laws, but it violated every standard of human decency.