stokes mugshotThe story of Anthony Stokes didn’t start the day he died after crashing a stolen car into a pedestrian and sign post.

Nor did his story start moments earlier when he kicked down the door of an elderly Roswell Georgia woman and shot at her as she sat on the couch during his home invasion.

The public story of Anthony Stokes actually began a few years prior, in 2013, when he was diagnosed with an enlarged heart, a terminal condition if he did not receive a heart transplant.

He became a public story because Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston informed his family he would not be a candidate for transplant because of his past behavior:

“the decision was made that Anthony is currently not a transplant candidate due to having a history of non-compliance, which is one of our center’s contraindications to listing for heart transplant.”

Non-compliance” a relatively disingenuous term without further definition; and in the case of Anthony Stokes a definition fraught with considerations for the most politically correct delivery.

The refusal of the hospital to place Stokes on the transplant list drew the ire of his family, who, quickly enlisted the aid of the grievance marketers within the media.

“They just don’t want to give him a chance,” Anthony’s mother, Melencia Hamilton, told Channel 2.

It worked.

stokes-in-hospitalRather than face the ire of the professionally aggrieved the hospital acquiesced and put young Mr. Stokes on the list.

Less than a week later he was given a heart transplant.

Controversy avoided.

And following the transplant Stokes said while he had been trouble in school and stuff, he was appreciative of the second chance at life and would reform himself. He was done with fighting, and God provides forgiveness. It was October of 2013.

Everyone happy.

Until a little more than a year later (January 2015) when Stokes was arrested for burglary tools in the commission of a crime.

A month later, February 2015, he was released from jail after posting a $5,000 bond.

Then, three days agoMarch 30, 2015:

Stokes died after fleeing police following a carjacking and a burglary. An elderly Roswell woman told Channel 2 that Stokes shot at her after he kicked in her door and found her inside watching television.

Stokes clipped a car in the intersection and then jumped the curb and hit a pedestrian before colliding with a SunTrust Bank sign, Holland said.

“He lost control and there was a long set of skid marks,” she said.

Stokes died after rescue workers cut him out of [the] Honda, Holland said. The pedestrian was taken to the hospital, but is expected to survive her injuries, police said.

Anthony stokes

The last photograph on Anthony Stokes Facebook page.

In 2013 – “They just don’t want to give him a chance,” Anthony’s mother, Melencia Hamilton, told Channel 2.

a-prayer-for-times-like-these

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