No sir—She didn't make it
Allison Rice, a stopped train, and the questions Baton Rouge Police left unanswered
A freight train sits stalled on the crossing at the 1500 block. The street is dark and still. A silver SUV rolls westbound and stops at the tracks. Perhaps the radio is still on. Perhaps not.
Government Street, Baton Rouge.
It is 2:19 in the morning, September 16, 2022.
Behind the wheel sits Allison “Allie” Rice. She is 21 years old, sharp-featured and quick to laugh, the kind of young woman her coworkers at The Shed BBQ say lit up a room. She has worked a late shift. She is driving home.
Two men step out from between the stopped train cars.
What they want, in the next ten minutes, will be disputed for years.
Before I tell you what happened next, I want to tell you about Angela Engler.
A decade ago, I hired Angela as a quality assurance engineer at a Baton Rouge technology company. Her last name was Rice then.
She was intelligent, warm, and quick to laugh.
Angela’s daughter, Allie, took after her.
Someone shot Allie at a train crossing on Government Street in 2022. Three years later,…
