So I was cleaning out my garage this evening. Got a late start, so around 8pm I’ve got half the garaged emptied onto the driveway and am organizing my gardening equipment. The usual sounds of the neighborhood float on the air: kids playing basketball in the street, the hum of a distant lawn mower, the laughter and conversation of the families down the street congregating in their yard. Just a nice, quiet evening in suburbia.

Now, my house is on the corner of a T intersection, so out of my open garage I can see down the street that mine buts into. Three houses down, there is a crowd in front of a house. This, in and of itself, is not unusual. There are usually several people out there, playing basketball, shooting the breeze, just hanging out. But something has happened to rile them up. I can hear angry shouts, then car tires squealing. Standing in the open garage door, I watch several people jump into cars and take off. Some others go running off up the road, out of my sight.

I turn back into the garage, continuing my efforts, when I hear a blood-curdling scream. This sound literally made my blood run cold. Definitely not something minor. Looking back out I can see several women running back to their house, screaming, “HE’S GOT A GUN, HE’S GOT A GUN!” I immediately head into the house, where my wife is getting the kids ready for bed. Explaining what I heard and saw, I hustle them into the bedroom at the back of the house, farthest from the front that I can get them. Crouching low, I head back to the inside door to the garage and peek out. Down the street, all is chaos.

Pulling out the cell, I fire off a call to 911, explaining what I’ve heard and seen. The operator tells me that they’ve already had several calls about the incident and assures me that the police are on the way. I cautiously edge my way out into the garage, to try to figure out if the coast is clear. By this time, things have calmed down to some extent. I can hear a woman on her phone; I got the impression she was talking to 911. Within minutes the police arrive. Several of the men are shouting angrily to the police, who are trying to ascertain what happened and who was involved. Eventually, things settle down. I overhear the police telling my neighbors that they’ve been having trouble with this group recently.

This is only the second time in my life that I have been truly frightened for my families safety. The first time was when I was standing in the Florida Mall, holding my sleeping daughter while my son slept in the stroller beside me. We were waiting for the Goddess to finish her shopping when a person got stabbed right in front of me, staggering away leaving a trail of blood on the shiny mall floor. Now this happens right in my own front yard.

Fortunately, in this case, there were no injuries, no shots had been fired. But I think that I’ll keep the kids inside for the next couple of days.

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