Gunshots in the street
It usually happens in another town. Or even another country. Not normally at the end of your own road.
Today was different. For just as everyone was getting ready for work and university early this morning – under a beautiful blue sky – news came through that armed police were confronting a ‘gunman’ in the next street.
HEARD SHOTS
Everything went crazy. Traffic was diverted from the main thoroughfare. Huge lorries and buses tried to squeeze down our narrow roads. Drivers lost their tempers with one another, trapped as they were in their own little worlds.
I put on a teeshirt and jeans and went out to investigate – amid the old admiralty housing, where Ian Fleming and his wartime commando buddies used to live. Immediately, I bumped into someone I knew. He’d abandoned his car when he heard shots and saw police diving for cover. ‘I left the vehicle running, the iPod going, everything,’ he said, thankful that, though shaken, he was safe and alive.
Some people came up who knew those involved in the incident. They were calling loved ones on their mobile, not knowing what to do – or what to say. This didn’t appear to be a ‘gunman’ on the loose, like in the movies. This was real. This was about a family in pain.
HUGE STRESS
A statement from Sussex police said they found a man with serious shotgun wounds. He was airlifted to hospital, where he later died from those injuries. There is now a traumatised and bereaved household, just round the corner, who also find themselves at the centre of a news story.
I keep thinking of the times in which we live, and the huge stress hitting many families right now. I pray that a peace ‘beyond understanding’ will visit them. (Photo: Clive Price)
