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Ramsey Interview

 

CLEVELAND – On the afternoon of May 6, 2013 Charles Ramsey was a dishwasher, serving out a two week suspension from work and missing his $269 a week paycheck.

With the $11 he had left in his pocket he headed, as the rest of the world would soon learn, to McDonalds and ordered the Big Mac he got to go, taking it back to the home of Seymour Avenue he shared.

He no sooner got home, sat on the porch and took his first bite when he heard what he described in his new book “Dead Giveaway” which goes on sale Thursday, as a blood curdling scream.

The events that followed; the rescue of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight from the home of Ramsey’s neighbor Ariel Castro would soon captivate the immediate attention of the nation and beyond.

I was getting ready to cover a council meeting that evening for NewsChannel5 when I was dispatched to Seymour Avenue for the story that to this day is almost beyond comprehension.

When I arrived I searched the growing crowd for familiar faces, a relative perhaps of Amanda’s or Gina’s looking to confirm that what we were healing was true.

This is when I first encountered Charles Ramsey and overheard him telling the colorful tale of how he helped rescue the women.

As one photographer worked to establish a signal between our live television truck and the station I grabbed another photographer and did a brief interview with Ramsey out of fear he may disappear.

When we were able to go live I had been looking over my shoulder at Ramsey who was still talking not far away so when the anchor finally tossed to me, I grabbed him and just pulled him in to tell me again what happened.

Beginning to end the interview lasted just under three minutes ending of course with “I knew something was wrong when a pretty little white girl ran into a black man’s arms. Dead giveaway.”

As I attempted to rap him up he concluded “either she’s homeless or she got problems, that’s the only reason why she’s running to a black man.”

 

ramseybook

 

To read more on Ramsey and watch the interview, click here: NewsNet5.com

Article and First Picture Courtesy of WEWS NewsChannel 5

Second Picture Courtesy of the “Dead Giveaway” book and WEWS NewsChannel 5

Charles Ramsey, the New Book and the Rescue Almost a Year Later  was originally published on wzakcleveland.com