Friday morning a 16-year-old boy living in the next block was fatally stabbed in front of the Nice 'n' Easy convenience store down the street. The assailant, 24 years of age, was caught almost at once. This is a deeply sad extinguishing of a young life, and absolutely needless. If the Utica schools had opened on time this year, perhaps the kid wouldn't have been out on the street at 3:00 am. Sue said he was basically a good kid, not nasty, just sort of a ballbreaker like all kids can be. She taught his younger brother (also a ballbreaker) a year or so ago. Sue thought she might have seen someone resembling the assailant get beat up by two kids across the street from our house Thurday night. The kids ran, the guy got up refusing offers of help--he was clearly angry. Whatever the situation was, nobody deserves to die at 16.