Teen's death after naked rampage baffles father

[matcom]

<snip>

A 17-year-old Berkeley Heights boy ran naked across Route 22 Saturday, then crashed through a window of a Mountainside home and rampaged through the house. He collapsed, bleeding in the kitchen, and died at a hospital the next day, police said yesterday.

Police are trying to determine if Cole Barrier had been using drugs. They cited "a possible drug overdose" in a statement about the incident. Marijuana and a pipe used to smoke the drug were found at the Mountainside home where Cole had spent the afternoon, Police Chief James J. Debbie said.

However, Cole's father, Philip Barrier, insisted yesterday that his son was not a drug user, but enjoyed sports and hanging out with friends.

"There was never any indication that there was drugs," Barrier said. "Teenagers experiment with things, but how would I know what he did?"

At Governor Livingston High School, where he was a senior, Cole was known for his sense of humor, friends said. He joked he would make millions by frosting both sides of Frosted Mini-Wheat cereal.

"He liked to make anybody laugh," said 17-year old Ryan Miller, also a senior. "He could turn any bad situation into a good situation."

In honor of Cole, dozens of students donned their friend's preferred mode of dress yesterday, coming to class in loose-fitting pajama pants.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/union/index.ssf?/base/news-4/109998684845140.xml

[no name no slogan]

1. Holy Sh!t. Sounds like PCP

I haven't heard of this kind of thing since the late 70s/early 80s, when Angel Dust was big. Damn, that's messed up. :(

[ewagner]

3. Yes...

I had a student freak out like that in the mid '70s...all too familiar.

[rocktivity]

6. AT college, PCP turned just another evening of passing the pipe

into a gang rape. Sounds like he was slipped a mickey of some kind. Yes, it does sound familiar.

:shrug:
rocknation

[no name no slogan]

7. We had it happen at my Jr High school (in '82)

Some kid got into his older bro's stash, and tried it, thinking it wasn't much worse than pot. The kid came to school that day with Anton LeVey's Satanic Bible under his arm, thinking he was a warlock of some type.

He said all this weird sh!t like "Satan is with us-- POOF, you're a goat!" and it took FOUR grown men to hold him down once they got him. And he was only 13 years old, not more than 100lbs at the time.

Seeing that scared me away from hard drugs. I never touched anything stronger than weed after that.

[Midnight Rambler]

2. what kind of an idiot

would think pot could make you do that? if you're smoking weed, you're lucky if you can get off the couch.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

4. Methinks I spot an incongruity: "insisted his son was not a drug user" and

"In honor of Cole, dozens of students donned their friend's preferred mode of dress yesterday, coming to class in loose-fitting pajama pants." are two sentences that do not go together.

[motely36]

5. Don't you talk to your kid????

"Teenagers experiment with things, but how would I know what he did?"

That really pisses me off. Mostly because my parents never knew what I was doing half the time.

[Phillycat]

8. "He joked he would make millions by frosting both sides of Frosted

Mini Wheats".

Not a stoner. Uh-huh. Dad, get a clue. Your son wore pj's to school.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

9. Marijuana doesn't make people freak out like that....

:wtf:

[Aiptasia]

10. had to be more than pot

I'm an old timey pothead, and it would take a pretty mean laced joint to make me want to strip naked and run around crazy like that....

I might do it on a dare, mind you, but never because of a little herb. ;-)

BTW, most parents are clueless. Mine would have freaked out and would have sprouted purple polka-dots if they knew all the shit I was up to as a teenager. Then again, that was back in the day when coal was a different color.

[THUNDER HANDS]

11. gee, whenever I tried pot

running...well, ANYWHERE, was the last thing I ever wanted to do.

[Kat45]

12. This is the sentence that bugged me:

>insisted yesterday that his son was not a drug user, but enjoyed sports and hanging out with friends.<

The usual attitude, that sports and drugs are mutually exclusive interests/activities.

[MattG]

13. the last sentence had me for a second

When it said "In honor of cole, the students will wear . . ." I almost thought naked for a sec, but then saw pajamas. I must be goin' crazy, or arrived a long time ago.