I will agree that more should have been done if there were underage drinkers involved.. This whole thing is sad- yet we still cannot hold other people accountable for evryone elses foolish actions..This was a 26 year old man, everyone involved obviously was not thinking clearly if they were intoxicated. Hopefully this young mans death will wake up others, so that his death was not in vain.

areyouevenlistening: Your comments have been "RIGHT ON" Don't worry about your comments on here! No matter what you say on here..... Someone will attack you! You will find out that this is real BATTLE GROUND. As you read on with the posts here. You will find out who is the fighter and who is the lover... LOL...

danneskjold - It sounds like you and at least one other person are under the legal drinking age. Were you friends with Ed because he would provide you with alcohol? Because not too many 17-19 year olds hang with 26 year olds unless you were using his friendship to your own advantage.

danneskjold~ So your also now telling us that you all had A fire going in the woods? Real smart and one more reason the responding officer should have done more, what if that fire had gotten out of control? You have already admitted that some of you were pretty drunk, (public intoxication is different from just drinking in public not just A citation like A speeding ticket as was stated here somewhere) My condolences to Ed's family sorry for your loss...... I still believe that the police could and should have done more, especially now in light of some more facts being stated here by some who were there, I'm sorry if some of you don't agree but think about this tragic event and now put yourself in the position of Ed's parents, what if that was your son who died would you still have the same thoughts and blahzae attitude? I certainly would think you would look at this completly differently. To his friends here I am truely sorry you lost your friend and I never pretended to know him I am just thinking about how I would feel if I was in your place, this is sad and nothing will change what happened, I only hope it will change what decisions you make with your own futures! I'm sorry if this has offended any of you but it's just my opinion and I thought that this was what this forum was for when I signed up A few days ago!

One more thing: was jason one of those friends? just curious

I was hoping that this wasn't the Ed I know but I'm afraid it is. I knew him for about 3 years from blackbridge and he was a good guy a little bit of a loner but once you talked to him for a while he was cool. He was nice and if you needed something he was always there, we always talked about anything. A few things bothering me is he was quite the drinker but he had to drink ALOT to overdose, his tolerance was crazy. and who are these friends of his? why in the world didn't ONE of them stay with him that night especially knowing how much he had drank doesn't truly sound to friendly to me, and alot of people liked to use him because he was nice was these people one of them? I'm not assuming anything or pointing fingers at anybody seeing as I don't know what happened but seems a little fishy to me. One more thing: Josh2009 are you saying to blame the cops? IF you want to put blame on anyone it should be those friends of his, I'm sure those friends weren't complaining the police let em off with a warning. Either way though very sad and he will be missed I truly did enjoy his company and talking to him and seeing him smile.

Sad a young man died from foolishness.. To point anger twards the officers is ridiculous. Do you realize how many times they come across these situations? If the police had to arrest and take to jail every intoxicated person to babysit them- where would we house the real criminals?? It is sad this young man died, it is even more sad that he was left alone by his friends. Of course if everyone is intoxicated then nobody is using good judgement.. Hopefully some can learn from this.

i knew ed smith for about 6 months he was a good person i feel bad about what happen to him.my brother was one of the four people that was there that night. he was the one who discovered him down behind the park he was very shocked and very upset after he found him the next morning.me and my brother are going to make a memorial for our good friend he deserves closure for his loss he will be missed.i think if the police were to take ed to jail that night he was intoicated i think he would of had the help he needed if it were to became a seriouse problem when he was in jail but like it said in other comments people said in their comments about what the police should have done.think the cops should of done more about the sittuation. i will miss u ed smith u were a great person and a loving peson who just wanted to have friends. josh L your good friend.

seriously what is wrong with you people. I cant understand why you are all arguing about something as stupid as where sections of janesvill are. A man has died have some sympathy. His family and friends(I happen to be one of them) would appreciate some kind words and sympathy for their son. For those that were there with him last night, I hope you did what you could. For Ed, we will be thinking of you. Ed was a nice man. Too nice at times. Yea he liked to drink and get in trouble but who doesnt sometimes. Ed was just about having fun. His fun ended a little early and that is unfortunate. I am hoping that you will all be leaving kind comments not arguing about crap.

"Janesvillean", What I meant was that the area was considered fourth ward for voting purposes. I looked and it has been changed this year. This year it is a different voting ward. I know from voting last year.

"To all", Of course the police should respond to the most severe call, but they were already there for the drinkers. It wasn't like the whole police force was there. It was two cops. I'm all for getting a warning, but its not like they were drinking out by one of their houses or anything. They were trespassing on private property. They should have been taken into custody for trespassing, and public intoxication. It sounds like to me that they were doing more than drinking for the simple fact that one guy had to dump his back pack and come back for it later even though they were just asked to leave, and the fact that ed might have died from an overdose. There is enough police to have taken care of both issues at the same time. There is too much drinking and drug use in those woods. Plus it is an escape route for thieves after they have ripped off the neighborhood.

Why can't the police stop all this drug and alcohol abuse, get rid of the gangs, stop school shootings, raise our kids, fix our relationships, keep dogs from biting people, stop deer from running out in front of cars, keep cars from speeding in our neighborhoods, stop terrorism, prevent tooth decay, remind us to change our oil and rotate our tires, mow my lawn, paint your house, make sure we eat right and get plenty of exercise, keep us from being obese...save us all from ourselves? Because then we'd never grow up, never realize that life is a special and uncertain gift, never learn to be responsible and take care of ourselves. never raise our kids to become autonomous competent adults, and never understand that you are never, never too young to die, especially if you do stupid things. Because then as a species we'd eventually slip into being nothing more than dependent, parasitic, perpetually entitled slugs. Oops...

that's horrible, it will be interesting to why this person died and why the friends just left him behind. And let's see police should respond to people drinking in the wrong place or shots being fired, that's really a no brainer, go to gun shots first that situation is a little more dangerous.

Areyouevenlistening & SomeoneSpecial // Apparently you are both "SPECIAL". Try to take this into consideration... There are a few ADULTS drinking in public. (ADULTS aka old enough to know better) And there are some other people on the other side of town shooting at each other, where it is putting others into DANGER! So from the sounds of what you are both saying is that an officer should stay with the intoxicated subjects and issue then a citation (just like a speeding ticket) instead of going to put their efforts into something that does in fact put innocent people into danger? I'm glad you two aren't law enforcement, I would hate to have some idiots on the street thinking a citation is more important than running down a subject/or subjects with guns.

areyouevenlistening- What's wrong with you?

areyouevenlistening: Lets not place unwanted blame. Those drinkers were adults. If you think "arresting" them would have kept him from dying I have news for you. Drinking in publc is an ordinance violation. It is a ticket like a traffic ticket. The cop would have written it and released him. They were drinking beer in the wood making noise. Me and my friends have made some noise before and I appreciated the warning. Lets let them get the people shooting. They had to go but handled the issue at hand.

For those of you blaming this on the full moon, you're wrong. The moon wasn't full on Thursday. It was waning crescent:

http://stardate.org/nightsky/moon/

It wasn't even up when the police had contact with Mr. Smith as the moon had set at 11:08 am Thursday and next rose at 3:59 am Friday morning:

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/aa_pap.p...

Furthermore, there is no statistical data to show an increase in odd or violent behavior due to a full moon. There are loads of anecdotal stories, but when measured over time and subjected to statistical analysis, there is no change:

http://skepdic.com/fullmoon.html

<Nero zips up his flame proof suit>

wcanadajr, if anybody considers the area by Black Bridge road the Fourth Ward, they are completely wrong. The Fourth Ward is actually defined by the city as the area south of Court Street, east of the railroad tracks, and west and north of the river. There is a map here:
http://www.ci.janesville.wi.us/CompPlan/...
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As to the police not arresting anyone, I doubt it's their policy. As with trespassing on private property, the first contact is a warning to leave.

areyouevenlistening: You took the words right out of my mouth. I couldn't of said it any better.

danneskjold - maybe you should have been home reading your Bible Thursday night - oh yea, that's right you can't - you ripped it up in English class at Parker!

No one has even mentioned the fact that drinking outside in A public area like this one is ILLEGAL yet all the police officer did was told them to leave and never even came back to check on the situation arrests should have been made and A life could have been saved! I understand that there was shots fired at the same time yet there are enough other officers on duty and the Sheriffs dept. also responded (I have to wonder how much of that was curiosity on his or her part, or just wanting to be involved), I sincerly hope that the officer in this case will be able to sleep at night knowing that his or her call here could have saved A life and thats something they can not ever change now! This man is now dead and will never get another chance to make different choices, I can only hope that the officer who decided to leave these kids to drink and Edward Smith to die realizes that he or she could have made A real difference Thursday night and now its so sadly TOO LATE! 24 is way too young to die!

The body was found in the woods by the old land fill where Prairie Ave. dead ends. This area is considered the Fourth Ward. I don't know why, but it is, and it had nothing to do with the shooting by the Hospital. After the police kicked the guys out of the woods they went to respond to the shooting. "Two separate issues".

This story is about the near northeast side of janesville not look west or forth ward and it wasn't the shooting It was the death of a young man in a wooded area for those that seem to have the 2 stories confused.Forth ward is south of center ave and look west is north of center ave 2 separate wards in the city.Why always link it to beloit why not chicago or milwaukee or rockford. Yes beloit has problems but they are on the state line and dont deny the problems exist.

Look West has never been part of the Fourth Ward. I should know -- I know the people who founded both neighborhood committees. They aren't even contiguous because the Downtown is in between them (although all three sort of touch at the Five Points).
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But that has nothing to do with this sad death.

Another anti-Beloit comment. Even bullets don't seem to wake up the better-than-thou folks from the City of Champions. Or is it the City of Parks. Or is it the City With Heads in Sand?

Mayor...

...Just an update for you...look west and fourth ward are two SEPERATE areas.

Yea no kidding what is going on with Janesville, between Edward being found dead and the shooting last night, which i drive by and seen all the police, the news out of Janesville is sounding more and more like Beloit everyday.

Look West? Give us a break. Nobody uses that term. It's the Fourth Ward and always will be the Fourth Ward. Just like the saying "You can coat a pile of dog crap in gold, but it's still a pile of dog crap."

...too bad about Ed though.

what is going on in janesville? what is in the future of this GROWING city?

Another tragedy. My condolences to Mr. Smith's family and friends.

That area has been a party place for years and this is sad. Again thoughts are with his family.

spark, the Gazette staff files their stuff in the morning. The Channel 3 staff is working for 6 and 10 pm newscasts. I don't know what process they use to choose stories for the news blog, but half of them are wire stories and the others are basically first drafts of a story the Gazette will have the next day.
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This appears to be the wooded area in question (overlooking the old landfill):
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cvu27k

yes that area is over by the hospital.

where is west look?

I sure hope jpd notified the family already. From the gazette story I thought it was in the rocky hill but in madison story it sounds like the wooded area behind rogans, where exactly did it happen I wonder? Talk about full moon last night geesh.

http://www.channel3000.com/news/18976688...

I can understand not hindering an investigation completely, but if that's the case, the info should be kept the same everywhere. I think the JPD does a great job. I was just curious.

That, or a billboard.

do you think that the JPD found out from channel3000 too?

possibly to not hinder investigation on it. IMO

oops not victim person found.

Why is it more information to these stories is always given on other websites? There's more to this on the Madison news websites.

The JPD has had their share of overload in the last 24 hours Good luck on the investigations. My prayers to the family of the victim.

How awful, so, apparently this has nothing to do with the shots fired over in the Look West neighborhood? What a crazy night last night. Must have been a full moon. The family of the victim will be in my prayers.