neighborhood tragedy

Posted on 31. Mar, 2009 by admin in Grab Bag

If you follow me on Twitter (@lasertron), you will know that we had some tragic events in our neighborhood Sunday night. Our across-the-street neighbors were found dead in their homes and police say it was evidently a murder-suicide.

When the police were called to the home at 10:30pm, one of my friends was visiting. We watched two groups of SWAT team members flood the house with rifles drawn and shields up, and we saw the flashights on the ends of their guns through the windows. They had suspected that there may be a gunman barricaded inside the house, but after their investigation they determined that the husband had shot the wife and then turned the gun on himself.

A few local news stations were walking around asking neighbors for interviews. I was Twittering the whole thing and a news station did a little story about that. They interviewed me about what I saw and showed some of my tweets on the screen:

It was so scary because we neighbors, the people in the area who were watching, had no idea what was going on. When all you see is a long line of 30 SWAT team members with their rifles drawn running into a house, what are you supposed to think?

I thought they were a very sweet couple and I still can’t believe Bob would do that to his wife. He was a psychologist and had been a softball coach to many of my friends. They were very well-known and well-liked in our neighborhood.

And then this morning, I woke up to see more police cars at the house. It turns out that the home was broken into at 4am last night and the couple’s car was stolen. It’s horrifying–before the scene was even cleaned up, it’s burglarized…who does that!?

I’m so saddened by this. If there is anything to take from this tragedy, it’s how important it is to know your neighbors. Professor Lasertron and I mainly keep to ourselves, but maybe we shouldn’t. I’d really like to get closer to the people in my area now.