Monday At Work

10 News photo

Bay News 9 photo

I work in some rough neighborhoods actually preferring them. I'm not sure why. Once I informed my client's mom and her sister that I had a new family on XYZ street. They looked at each other with genuine, worried expressions. "Teacher...that's a B-A-D neighborhood! You be careful in that neighborhood." It was two blocks away from their home!

Smile.

This morning my first client hollers, "Teacher! Teacher! There's shooting!" People have asked if I heard the shooting. No. The kids are noisy, I'm noisier and the mom had just turned on the heater in the closed up house. The video footage we ran to watch on the family tv showed more police in one block then I've ever seen in 58 years of life. The client's parents and I agreed as we sat stunned in front of their big screen tv that now would be a good time to rob a bank. Every law enforcement officer in the city was just blocks away at the scene.

Who was watching the city we nervously asked out loud?

I think this video says it all. It's not professionally made which makes it all the more chilling.

Raw Video: Shoots fired in St. Petersburg.

I like the lady in the end of the video. "We'd better get out of here."

Ya think, lady?

It is now believed over 100 shots were fired. They had to ram a hole in the house where the gunman was hiding to get one of the fallen officers out. They both died at the local trauma center, however. The U.S. Marshall who was shot twice will survive.

(Chris O'Meara/Associated Press)

Two elementary schools and one middle school were on lock down. On my way out down the block I passed the middle school. A ghost town. Far too quiet for buildings housing tweens. It was an eerie feeling as I drove past. A parents worse nightmare.

Too fresh coming on the heels of the fatal shooting of two Miami police officers one of whom was a single mom with a teenager and 23 years as an officer under her belt. 23 years! It's not like she didn't know what she was doing. 23 years!

Everyone loses in this situation. The police officers and their families. The neighbors. The children in lock down. The gunman's brother who is a decent man who has done good for this community. And the wife of the gunman who feared for her life constantly. The restraining order and warrant for this violent, career criminal and registered sex offender's arrest issued November 1st not enforced until this morning. Her sister said she would come home from work and he would be there. Now her house...the house she owned...looks like this...


I pick up The Boy from school. I get The Baby off the bus. The phone rings. It's The Boy's school.

"Are you missing a wheel chair?" uh oh...

Seems I drove off and left it behind the van. Too much sadness in one day for this old woman, apparently. I was just thankful to hug my kids at the end of this awful day Monday. I'm also very thankful I didn't back over the wheelchair.

Reading about situations like this is one thing. Seeing it up close and personal another. It reminds us of how fragile our lives are.

Something no one wants to dwell on.