Effect of killing on elderly fuels concern

PORTLAND – Some Portland authorities are concerned about the reaction of the area’s elderly population to the beating death of an 88-year-old man last week.

John McCann, a retired teacher and school administrator, was beaten and kicked to death in a grocery story parking lot Friday. Witnesses say he was randomly attacked by Derek Soucy, 25, who has been charged with McCann’s murder.

Authorities are worried the bizarre attack will leave behind an exaggerated feeling of vulnerability for many senior citizens in Southern Maine.

“Elder crime is a lot like hate crime,” said Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion. “The reason those are so destructive in a community is because it’s like it happened to them. It reminds the elderly – or gays or blacks – that they are different and they do suffer consequences for that.”

Police say Soucy did not necessarily seek out an elderly person. Rather, Soucy initially thought McCann was someone else, then continued to follow him after he realized his mistake, according to a police affidavit.

While statistics indicate that the elderly are far less likely than others to be victims of violent crime, the brutal beating highlights the vulnerability of older people.

“I do think this is going to have a chilling effect, at least for a while. I think there will be some self-imposed isolation here, particularly in urban areas,” said Michael Brady, a professor of human resource development at the University of Southern Maine.

“Physically they don’t have the same strength and capacity to fight back even if they wanted to,” he said. “They can feel that they’re easy targets, that they’re going to be a magnet” for trouble.

Elderly Mainers, like their counterparts elsewhere in the country, often rate personal safety a top concern, according to the American Association of Retired Persons. And Friday’s attack exacerbates that anxiety.

But statistically, the elderly are less likely to be victims, particularly of violent crime, than other age groups. Less than four elderly people in 1,000 were victims of violent crime in 1999. That compares to 77 violent crime victims per 1,000 people aged 16 to 19.