Gaddafi Dead; Justice for Local Family?

Deposed Libyan dictator Col. Muammar Gaddafi is reported to have been killed.

Among those killed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, was Bernard J. McLaughlin, a Cranston native. After several years, Libya formally accepted responsibility for the bombing, though Gaddafi himself denied culpability.

McLaughlin was 30 and a 1977 graduate of . He graduated from Harvard University in 1982. He was on the flight traveling from London to spend the holidays with his Cranston family.

In his memory, his family established the Bernard J. McLaughlin Memorial Scholarship Fund at Cranston East.

The scholarship goes to a student who is in the top 20 percent of the class and has participated in varsity cross-country, track or an individualized sport like golf or gymnastics for at least two years to apply. Also considered is character and leadership in the sport, citizenship and attendance and service to school and community, according to the Cranston High School East Web site.