I witnessed an attempted shooting today

[groundss]

Not sure if anyone will care, but I keep replaying this scene in my head and have to talk about it...don't want to tell the parents about it cause you know how mothers are.

So I'm in downtown Baltimore for a Habitat for Humanity project as part of my work for the Ravens (just started last week). I've done Habitat projects like this before and they're often in rough parts of town. And anyone who's ever seen "The Wire" knows Baltimore has a rep for having some tough "hoods".

At any rate, we finish our work and I'm sitting on the front steps of the house w/ the other volunteers. One of the girls is talking to a group of kids next door to our right when all of a sudden they sprint off in different directions. Stunned, we turn to our left to see a guy only a few feet from us pull a revolver from his pocket and open fire on a crowd of men across the street. We sprint inside the house for cover and the whole thing's over in a matter of seconds. No one was hurt, but I was definitely a little shaken.

Police reports, et al followed and I eventually went back to the office to finish up my work and play some pickup soccer w/ the coworkers and a few players. Quite a day...

Anyone else ever witness something similar? Did it have any lingering effects on you, your outlook on life or simply how to handle yourself in unfamiliar territory?

Like I said, maybe nobody cares, but it was such a surreal moment and I doubt I'll ever forget it.

 

[A. BETTIK]

I've not had anything that dramatic happen but just as life threatening. Such events kind of serve as a moment in time after which to which every other following moment can be directly linked. The days, months and years that accumulate afterwards are all there because you survived, not, if you didn't.

I nearly slid off a cliff once and was nearly hit by a car while making a left turn on a bicycle. The car slammed its breaks going down a steep hill and got so close, I could feel the wash of hot engine air.

Because there's no injury or prolonged physical suffering, to a certain extent life immediately after seems to go on normally and it is hard to grasp mentally.

I have seen some people though, totally freak out in a car if they are not driving and a car gets too close or there is sudden breaking. So maybe part of it is a classic innate personality thing or accumulated experience thing.

What interests me about your experience is how did the girls sense the gun on the left if their attention was to the right? I guess they could hear something out of place or some other cue?

 

[OldHippie]

I think you have experienced some post traumatic stress. It can occur whether something life or limb threatening happens to you or to someone else while you are present. It can follow a traumatic event which causes intense fear and/or helplessness in an individual.

 

[groundss]

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[l00p]

Yes and most of it in D.C. and a couple things in LA.

I saw a dude get shot in the neck in front of Gold's Gym in Arlington, VA. This is when it was further down Wilson Blvd. from where it is now. A dude shot another with a .22 in the neck. He was spurting blood but lived.

There were a few shootings witnessed in Malcom X (Meridian Hill) park in the early 90's when I lived there. Also once while we were having a game of flag football down at Anacostia Park. It happened about 100 feet from where the game was. That dude did not live.

Once a dude got shot in the alley behind my condo on Euclid St. and University in Columbia Heights, D.C. (off Malcolm X park). A dude came running out of the alley to find another one at the end of it. He emptied out on him and his buddy came running down the alley. He flushed the dude into a trap.

There were also numerous other gunshots heard.

We had a drive by at the club I worked at, a dude shot on the dance floor (same thing happened at a club called Tracks but I was in another part of the club).

Ask people if they remember Kilimanjaro Club on Kalorama in Adams Morgan, D.C. If there was a GoGo event there it almost always ended with a shooting. It spread to reggae shows too so I stopped going. In fact, don't go to GoGo events unless they have radically changed.

Welcome to the DC and B'more areas. I doubt highly this will be your only experience with this sort of thing. I hope it is. It changes you.