Robert West quickly became one of my bestfriends and favorite coworkers when I was at USPS. We were lucky enough to work together for a couple years and formed a really tight friendship. 

Robert grew up in experiencing violence in Little Rock Arkansas, rose up as a talented boxer and travelled the world in competition, and met and married Lila West here in Portland Oregon. He had his life set and made here; he had a great job that he fought to keep when racist supervisors tried to fire him and his wife, he was raising a family of really nice boys, and he  though he had gotten far enough away from his past. 

He did what he did, and I will never forgive him for that. He took away a beautiful life from this world. Whether or not him falling and hitting his head at work on the cement could have led to him becoming violent is unfortunately not an excuse. And he must be punished for that. However he is still a human, and he is still my friend.

I have lived with and overcome a lot of guilt for what happened. I felt like I wasn't there for Robert as a friend and I wasn't aware that things weren't going well in the relationship. My grief caused issues in my own relationships, and I even feared that I could repeat his same behaviors if I stayed at USPS or in a relationship.