Oct 23, 2012 2 min read

If there’s any silver lining to be had from the shooting death of 55-year-old Vaughn Simonelli in the parking lot of the Shop ‘n Save grocery store in Washington last week, it’s that it appears to have been an isolated incident.From all indications, it was the bloody denouement of a road-rage confrontation. In a society awash with guns and, all too often, hair-trigger tempers, it could have happened in the parking lot of the toniest shopping mall in the most well-heeled of neighborhoods.It was a commentary on the individuals involved, not the community as a whole.But coming just a couple of weeks after the still-unsolved killing of Washington & Jefferson College student Tim McNerney on East Maiden Street, just a few blocks from Shop ‘n Save, it was a development neither city officials nor its boosters welcomed. Once again, images of yellow crime-scene tape in downtown Washington led the evening newscasts of Pittsburgh television stations. For a city that wants – and needs – to shake off the post-industrial doldrums, it was hardly the best impression to make on the wider world.However, the context of the shooting in the Shop ‘n Save parking lot illustrates the dangers of making a rush to judgment. It was not the result of a robbery, a drug deal gone bad or a gang feud. Just the horrible terminus of a petty conflict between two individuals that got out of hand. And we should keep that in mind as the investigation into McNerney’s death continues.We have been contacted by individuals who insist that everyone “knows” how the 21-year-old football player died, but they all sketch different scenarios about how it happened and serve up different suspects. In the aftermath of a high-profile, unsolved crime, rumor-mongering is not unexpected. But they are just that – rumors. They are not leads. They are not charges. It’s all little more, at this stage, than overheated speculation.The German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once observed “our senses don’t deceive us; our judgment does.” All the more reason to hold it in check and wait until all the evidence has been gathered.