Justice for Andrew Beach/Okolona Assault

Andrew Carl Beach

December 5, 1987 to July 20, 2012

It is true that Andrew was very gifted young man. His test scores were in the very top percentile of all of the students in the US. He could have gone to college anywhere and been accepted into practically any medical school in the country.

From the seventh grade on, his dream had been to be a pharmacist and become involved in pharmacological research.

He would have entered the Doctor of Pharmacy Program at the University of Tennessee this week. He had every intention of going on to achieve a second PhD in oncological research.

He was brutally and senselessly murdered on July 20 by a driver impaired at a minimum by alcohol and prescription pain medication only one-half mile from his home as he stopped at a rural four-way stop to allow another motorist to pass through the intersection. He was killed instantly as that impaired driver, traveling at an horrific rate of speed, hit him from the rear.

It was determined later that the driver and the three passengers in his car had just left a bar barely two miles away. The fifty-eight-year-old intoxicated driver left the bar, driving completely out of control. He ran through one stop sign, passed another driver at a high rate of speed and ran an approaching car off the road on his way to the fatal crash barely two minutes from the time he left the bar.

In addition to being a gifted student, Andrew was also an outstanding student athlete. He loved sports. As a left handed pitcher, he had an indomitable spirit to compete and win. From his first organized baseball at the age of nine to his final year at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, the accomplishments and rich memories are far too many to mention. Andrew on the baseball field was, and will always be, an image of pure poetry.

All of the academic and athletic accomplishments are not what defined Andrew Beach. He was most of all a loyal and loving son, brother, grandson, cousin, friend, teammate, student and engaged graduate assistant to the biology department at UAH. Though he was very shy and quiet and did not display his emotions easily, his true feelings shone in his beautiful smile and glistening eyes. He loved deeply and was loved by many in return.

Andrew's family has been pursuing the prosecution of the driver who took the life of this accomplished young man. As often happens, they've been disappointed in the lack of action in prosecuting the driver who killed Andrew. Mrs. Beach has contacted D.K. to ask that we publicize the following petition:

Justice for Andrew Beach

*****

We predict standing room only for Sunday services at Okolona Baptist Church in Town Creek. It seems their preacher was involved in an accident last Sunday night after church. According to news reports, Scotty Wayne Brackin, 43, was a passenger in a car driven by a member of his congregation when the two began to argue. Brackin abruptly exited the car on Wilson Dam Road in Muscle Shoals and ran into a field. The car's driver then pursued Brackin into the field, hitting him, and causing unknown injuries. Muscle Shoals police arrested the driver on charges of Second Degree Assault.

While an unusual tale in itself, the real kicker is that the driver was Brackin's wife Lee Ann Elliott Brackin. The couple have been married for 22 years and have three children. We also predict a marriage enrichment seminar coming soon to Okolona.

Shoalanda