Of a different sort.
Yesterday afternoon, a 63-year-old man in our city walked into one of our local hospitals and fatally shot a nurse on the fifth floor. The nurse had reportedly treated the man's mother before she died in the hospital in 2004. The shooter, they say, held a grudge against the nurse.
On the way off the floor, the gunman shot an administrative assistant at the elevator. Then in the hospital parking lot, a man in his 70s who was driving to his doctor's appointment was shot in the head in his truck by the same gunman. Finally an officer shot him in the shoulder. Today the assailant was released into police custody.
The shooter told police later that he thought the man in the parking lot was someone trying to stop him. Nope. Just an innocent bystander, at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Needless to say, our city is in shock.
Read the the CNN/AP report here.
Many are saying, What about security? Why wasn't there better security? Granted, no one I know was directly involved, so it's easier for me to be level-headed about this. But I don't think all the security in the world can stop someone from doing the likes of yesterday's action. If someone wants to target someone, he or she can do it. Say we had every known business and public building operating at the highest level of security at all times. Things like this still would and could happen. I'm not saying we need to be nonchalant about it, but you can't control and predict every action.
How much is safe enough?
Photo by Robin Trimarchi, Ledger-Enquirer
3 comments:
Stunning is the only word for what happened Thursday. Security? We dream if we think we can always be protected. I do wonder if the shooter had threatened the nurse. I had read that the shooter was a retired schoolteacher. Today's story made it clear that he had never really been that successful. The picture of his house was really pathetic. If he threatened the nurse, did the police take any action? He sounds like a man who just wandered around in a fog of depression and desire for revenge. We are usually helpless when people like that go around the bend.
Of course I did worry when I read about his cat in the paper. I hope a neighbor or someone else has taken in that poor thing.
Speaking of cats, and on a much lighter note--Scruffy demands to know what you all did to Bisquick. Whatever it is, tell Bisquick that the Scruffster sends feline felicitations. He knows the travails we human put our cats through.
Hi, kiddo. I just came back to your blog and checked the L-E link in your last posting and it no longer works. Technology is wonderful. I have another blog note--based on what you said last week about my having good stories, I just posted one of my favorite stories about one of my favorite aunts. It also features my mother's dog, Chi Chi. See you tomorrow, probably.
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