[Baker]

Yesterday afternoon I was laying back on the couch, reading, with the window open to catch the breeze.

You might say I froze when a series of gunshots went off, five or six. They were very loud and sharp, sounding close by. As I usually do when I hear shots I noted the time, 3:40 PM. I peeked up to look out the window and saw several young men running away from the nearby park that's west of me.

Pretty soon the sirens were sounding. The ambulances were there first, and it took the cops a little longer to show.

Turns out there was a big fight going on in the north end of the park, a bunch of high school students. Then some older guy pulled out a gun and started shooting, and everyone scattered.

A 34 year old woman is dead. She wasn't involved in the fight, but according to some accounts was trying to break it up. I talked to a woman who had been going towards the park and came running back(before the cops arrived). She was crying and shouting "She's dead, a lady is dead!" into her cell phone, "I don't want to see that!"

This all happened a short two blocks from my house. If I stood on my front porch or on the sidewalk I could look west and see cops pulling out the yellow crime scene tape and marking areas up. It's where I've cooked out with friends. And right in front of my house there is a schoolbus stop, with the bus due about fifteen minutes after all this happened.

Thanks for nothing, jerk, for killing a woman for no good reason, for endangering kids, and for giving me this memory in case I ever cook out over there again.

[Sparteye]

That is terrible, and terribly sad.

[sperfur]

Wow, Baker. We cooked out together in that park just a few months ago.

It sucks that that happened.

[gardentraveler]

That's awful, Baker. So sorry.

[wintermute]

I heard about this. What is wrong with people that they think the best solution to an argument is a gun?

This post has been edited by wintermute: 28 October 2009 - 06:26 PM

[Baker]

Thanks for listening. I've been kind of bummed for a couple of days, but what I feel won't begin to compare to the family of the dead woman. She had four kids! I've talked to a couple of people who knew her and they said she was a nice lady. I'll pray for her family, it's all I can do at this point.

[Horseflesh]

Yeah, I arrived home just as they were loading up what looked like a body into an ambulance, but I wasn't aware of the situation. I thought perhaps someone had had a heart attack at the house the ambulance was parked next to.

I haven't lived here all that long so I don't know that I feel it's my neighborhood yet, but I get how you feel.

But, to look at it a different way, there's been more cookouts there than gunshots, so I'll try to remember the good times and not let one bad guy ruin our park.

This post has been edited by Horseflesh: 29 October 2009 - 08:13 PM

[sperfur]

I will go again. (Although I will clear the hell out as soon as a fight starts.)

Don't let it ruin your happiness, Baker! Don't let them sunsabeeches win.

[dogbutler]

sperfur, on 30 October 2009 - 06:27 PM, said:

I will go again. (Although I will clear the hell out as soon as a fight starts.)

Don't let it ruin your happiness, Baker! Don't let them sunsabeeches win.

I agree. I've outlasted all the punks and thugs in my neighborhood.

[sperfur]

I lasted nine years in a punk-riddled neighborhood - then I moved to a place with less punks, and the bastids in my new neighborhood riddled my car with paintballs shortly after Christmas. Stupid things happen everywhere - unfortunately some more deadly than others.

Luckily, in a small town, the police have the time and inclination to investigate who got a paintball gun for Christmas. They even sent the Peaca Chaleef to take castings of the footprints in the snow!