bad Christmas

Violent crime close to home.

On the night of Dec. 22 we left the movies after seeing King Kong. We were going to get gas at a station by our house. It has a mom & pop flavor and is usually run by middle-Eastern people who are very nice to us. That night, their price was a little higher than some of the other surrounding stations. Knowing that they were a little slower to change their prices, I suggested that we wait until the next day to gas up. It turned out that the station attendant was robbed at gun point that night. Thankfully he's okay. We came back the next night (Dec. 23) and he told us about it.

He also told us that on the day of Dec. 23, the owner of the business next door and his dad was shot. We frequent the business next door too, and are familiar with the owner. The two are hospitalized and are expected to live. The shooter lives just a few blocks away and was surrounded by SWAT the night of Dec. 23. We've been missing the news, but talking to someone else, they told us that the shooter eventually shot himself (probably Christmas eve).

As this all happened in our neighborhood, we can say a neighbor was held at gun point and robbed, two neighbors were shot, and one neighbor committed suicide.

God help us all.