Pool Shooting
I always had the fear of a school shooting in the back of my mind...
and people would ask me if I am afraid to go abroad or cross the border in Mexico or live in Mexico. But no other place leaves me more fearful for my life than right here in the heart of the good old U.S. of A. where just looking at someone wrong could get you shot. Yea, I said it. Because it is true.
Our apartment complex has a pool. We've been a few times since it opened up on Memorial Day as so many pools do. My first time going a woman ran up to me and asked if she could walk in with me because she wasn't a residnt but wanted to take her kids to the pool. I said ok, but I didn't really wait for her.
When I got in I felt like a lot of people weren't from there. I don't know how I know. I don't know what tipped me off. My community is already reallly racially diverse-- but I don't know, it is also very, very quiet. I can say there were a lot of bald heads and bodies covered in tattoos. And there just wasn't a community feeling in the air.
And these thoughts came to my mind: We are just across the street from the "bad" county. This pool is not being policed or supervised. It is out of the way, out of sight completely from the public view. And it is free. THese things combined mean that anyone can come in here on any whim for any reason. I was honestly thinking that the next time I was going to pay the extra $3 or $6 to go to a different pool. Does that sound awful? To go to a pool that not just anyone can get into? I suppose it isn't the segregation by economic status but it does buy me security.
Iajia asked me the night before the shooting if it would be bad to say something to management about all the people who looked like they didn't belong there. I said that I think it would be good idea that we tell them in general, and not single anyone out. Then I started complaining about how it was possible that you had to have a keycode to get into the dog park area but not the pool. Talk about twisted priorities.
At any rate, we were almost there when the shooting happened. And I wouldn't have only been there with my son, but my seven year old next door neighbor. We were at the other pool when it happened, less than a block away. We took a short cut to get to the other pool. While there I heard tons of sirens. I didn't hear the gun shots. I was worried that maybe there was a fire. But I didn't see any smoke, so I figured maybe an ambulance was called for someone who maybe had a health condition.
15 minutes later, we left and started making our way down the hill that was our short cut. There was a policeman at the bottom and told us not to come down because it was a crime scene. Fortunately, I had been prepared enough to exchange numbers with the girl's mom and so I called her to pick us up. It would have been a very long way around otherwise--- carrying a tired two year old and the girl didn't want to walk.
While we were waiting for her mom, a car drove past and the driver told me about the shooting and said that maybe we shouldn't be sitting by ourselves so close to the woods because the guys who did it were at large. So that is when walked back to the main entrance.
Police were all over last night and they are still here. I tried to go down to the pool area but they have it blocked off. I think they did catch the guys... they took off in a car and a witness followed them while on the phone with 911. It was a dispute of some sort. One man died and another injured.