A lesson in how not to be a role model

When I moved out after college, she was my financial safety net.

And when life chased me into a corner, she encouraged me.

My mother would do most anything to help me. But I'm sure she'd draw the line at riding shotgun, so to speak, on a drive-by shooting.

We may have had that very situation in Wichita last Sunday, according to police.

Officers arrested a 16-year-old and his mother after a drive-by shooting. Police have accused the mother of driving the car and the son of firing the weapon.

If true, this is one bad mother.

An initial report in The Eagle said that around 2 a.m. Sunday, a 45-year-old woman drove a car past a house in the 1900 block of West Regal while her son fired several shots.

Wichita police Capt. Randy Landen said the attack probably was in retaliation for an unsettled debt.

Prosecutors charged the son with one count of criminal discharge of a firearm, one count of criminal threat and one count of criminal possession of a firearm by a juvenile. He's still being detained, said Jeanette Clary, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office.

Prosecutors charged the mother, Tina M. Martin, with criminal discharge of a firearm and one count of contributing to a child's misconduct. She is still being detained, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 26, Clary said.

I don't think this is what police meant when they sent out the call earlier this year for parents to engage kids involved in dangerous gang activity.

If you're a 40-something woman with children and you're out in the streets talking about bustin' a cap in somebody, you're probably part of the problem, not the solution.

You'd have to wonder what the nightly scene in such a parent's household might sound like. Maybe something like this:

"You listen to me. There will be no alcohol, no cocaine, no marijuana, unless you clean your plate."

"Young man, you get in that room and clean it up before you go out wilding."

"And another thing, stop leaving your Uzi and Street Sweeper laying around for me to trip over. I wasn't put on this Earth to go around this house picking up after you."

I'm exaggerating, I hope. And joking, kind of. But when a parent exposes a child to crime, it's not at all funny.

It's also not funny -- it's frightening -- that there was a 6-month-old and three other people in the house that was fired upon, Landen said. No one was hurt, but one of them reported being missed by inches.

But then, when you're sufficiently angry, Ma and Junior Potato Head strike again.

Evidence suggests that the shooter may have placed a potato over the barrel of the revolver to muffle the sound of gunfire.

Police found potato remains with a bullet hole and gunshot residue in the floorboard of the woman's car.

It may not sound like it, but my heart really goes out to the son.

I'm thankful every day for my loving, dutiful mother. I'll never do anything good in this life that didn't begin with her.

And it's times like this that I realize just how lucky I am.

If these allegations prove to be true, this kid never had a chance.

Police allege the mother actually encouraged her son to fire the gun.

"We're absolutely sure that she knew exactly what was going on," Landen told The Eagle.

Well, I'm glad someone knows what's going on nowadays.

I sure don't.