I Woke Up in a War Zone
2002-10-15 � 6:14 p.m.

Here's what's happening to me. (Actually, even a cursory examination of this series of events will reveal that very little of this has to do with me at all...but what can I say? I'm boring.)

One week ago today:

I was jolted awake by the phone ringing at five a.m., which is odd for two reasons: one, that the phone was ringing at five a.m., and two, that I heard it at all -- I usually sleep through just about everything. But it only rang a few times; I heard my roommate thump loudly down the stairs to answer it. I passed back out.

Approximately twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang. I was not as deeply asleep at this point, so I was almost immediately conscious. I heard voices below my window -- deep, male voices.

Something's going on, I thought to myself. I better check it out.

So I arose, pulled on some clothing and made my way downstairs. As I came down the steps, I could see out the front door -- there were cops out there! And my roommate, and the kid from next door. I sat in the chair by the door and eavesdropped on the conversation, getting more and more aghast the further it went. When my roommate came back in, I got the full story.

It seems that at about three a.m., my roommate and Rocky (the kid from next door) were out in front of the building chatting and smoking. Some guy wandered up off the street and punched my roommate in the mouth. Yeah. He then punched Rocky in the eye, and walked away.

They followed him, staying well back, and heard him talking to himself and watched him trying the doors of all the cars he passed. He saw that they were following him and threatened them, claiming to have a gun.

They flagged down a passing taxicab to have him call the police and continued to follow the guy.

Short story long, the cops showed up right quick (more on that later), and it took two of them to wrestle him to the ground. Once he was in custody, they told my friends that he had assaulted three other people that evening, breaking one guy's jaw, and also attempted to batter his way into the home of two women (he would have succeeded if they had not pushed an appliance in front of the door).

My friends gave their statements and during that time my roommate discovered that his tooth had been knocked out. They found the tooth and went to the hospital -- he got his tooth put back in and they put two stitches in his lip.

I was floored -- I had slept through the entire thing. My roommate was hungry, but tired, and his mouth hurt. I volunteered to walk down to the store and fetch him some soft-type food things if he wanted to clean up or take a nap or whatever. He agreed, and since it was almost six a.m., I figured I'd get to the store right when it was opening. I put on my coat and took off.

I wasn't really paying attention, kind of blown away by the whole string of events, so I didn't notice the two police cars sitting at the intersection I was walking towards. I was right up to them and turning the corner to the store when one of the cops whistled at me and told me I couldn't go that way, that I'd have to go around.

I looked down the street towards the store -- it was blocked off. There were multiple police vehicles, including the SWAT team van and an armored assault vehicle. There were news crews and quite a little crowd as well.

Turns out that the previous evening a guy (or two) attempted to rob the Safeway. He was armed, and was interrupted in the process of committing the robbery. He fired his gun at whoever it was that walked in on him and tried to flee the scene. Police were apparently on the way, because he was only able to get about half a block before he broke into a house and took the family inside hostage. They were still negotiating with him, which was why the street was closed.

No fucking kidding. This is like three blocks from my house.

Even further, the people who walked in on the robbery? Also my neighbors, and roommates with Rocky. They got fucking shot at.

The only people in my building who didn't get assaulted that evening were Dustin and myself because we went to bed at a reasonable hour so we could get up and go to work.

Wacky huh?

Still no internet at home. I'm finding it rather refreshing.

-t

Currently Aurally Inducing: Sparta, Red Alibi
Selection of the Lyrical Vocabulary: "To set the fire, and cover your tracks..."

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