Russian Terror Update

From a commenter on this post comes this update to the story:

For the first time in 24 hours, Zalina Dzandarova stopped feeling dead inside Friday. She had her daughter back — covered with blood, and suffering from shock and dehydration. But alive.

A day earlier, hostage-takers had forced the 27-year-old mother of two to leave the sobbing 6-year-old behind at Middle School No. 1. Only if she abandoned Alana, they told her, could Dzandarova carry her 2-year-old son, Alan, with her to freedom.

Haunted by the choice, Dzandarova spent Thursday night imagining what was happening to Alana in the school gymnasium with about 1,000 other terrified children and parents. She blamed herself for her child's ordeal.

"I know that I will never be able to forget this," she said. "I will never be the same."

Alana told her mother that a fellow hostage, a 15-year-old boy, saved her from the gymnasium after the militants' explosives detonated and set it on fire.

"According to her, when the explosions sounded, she just hurled her arms around him and begged, 'Please don't leave me behind' " — the same words she had uttered to her mother 24 hours earlier.

"She just held on tight to that boy. If it had not been for him, I would probably never see my girl again," Dzandarova said.

Fortunately the young man wasn't paralyzed by fear and indecision, or busily trying to explain whose fault the whole thing wasn't.

Now keep all that in mind while reading this. I've noticed a few instances of this sort of thing, too, and it's inexcusable.