holy crud do I not feel safe tonight!

[thh20]

I noticed this at about 6:30 tonight when I was heading home. I decided to walk after waiting for 10 minutes for the bus to come. About halfway down my street, I saw a fire truck blocking the street. It left just as I started walking, revealing on the other side, a street BLACK with cops and police cars. They were all there, including the emergency task force and the undercover police. There were 2-3 camera crews milling around too. I saw several cops putting a shirtless (and quite hairy) man in the back of a cruiser. I thought "Great! They FINALLY caught that sexual predator that's been terrorizing the neighborhood!" (nope.) People were looking around, some looked dazed, some looked shocked. I had to finally stop and ask an onlooker what was going on, to which she said "they caught someone with a gun", then with a shocked hand over her mouth, to her daughter "my god, I just talked to her yesterday..." I kept walking, and heard running steps behind me. Cops chased down and caught another shirtless man (same guy?) coming towards me.

I was getting quite freaked out, but kept walking. I saw a house with it's front door all smashed in, and cops milling around there, too. I fished out my cell phone and called my fiancÃ[emoji]169[/emoji], to let him know I was on my way and that I was ok.

I'm watching the news now, to see if they show the event, maybe get more info. From what I understand, a woman came home and shots went off in her house... that's all I know. I don't know if she's alive or not, how many gunmen there were, what kinds of guns they (he) had, etc... amazingly, there's nothing on the local news, even though the van was there...

Scary stuff!

I'm not interested in being out alone after dark at ALL any more!

 

[KitEKats4Eva!]

Good lord! Is there somewhere else you and your kits can stay for the night? How frightening??

 

[zissou'smom]

Wow! Your fiance is able to stay with you right? I hope so. There's been a few similar situations around here and I was so not good at being alone.

Stay safe!!!!!!!!!! I'm sure a LOT more cops will be rolling through your neighborhood!

 

[thh20]

I'm not overly worried. We have an alarm, there are 3 of us in the house (1 war vet, one big burly guy, and me) as well as a large dog. I'm safe here. Besides, the closest family I've got would be my soon-to-be in-laws, and they live closer to the crime scene. My family lives in Quebec, so that's quite a bit more of a trek!

 

[thh20]

My fiance's best friend is a detective, as well as his best man (he works in our district), so I'm sure the police presence will be taken into account.

 

[lunasmom]

Wow! That's just crazy!

Well just keep the doors locked and the lights low...

 

[missymotus]

Seems like everyday there's something on the news involving a gun in Toronto.

 

[jdpesz]

Do you have a gun in the house? Why should the bad guys be the only ones packing?

 

[icklemiss21]

Originally Posted by missymotus

Seems like everyday there's something on the news involving a gun in Toronto.

More and more each year. I almost laughed the other day watching the news when a cop said 'gun violence is slightly down this year, our problem this year seems to be stabbings'

Umm yeah... either way I am not a big fan of it... does it really make a difference if they shoot me or stab me for my purse?

 

[pombina]

Thats so scary. I'm glad you are ok and I hope the lady is ok too.

 

[ugaimes]

Oh wow, I can see why you were scared! From what it sounds like, this may have been a case of domestic violence (you're more likely to be attacked by someone you know than by a stranger). If that's the case, you're going to be perfectly safe (batterers rarely attack people outside of their relationship), though I hope that woman is OK!

 

[driven]

Any update on this??

 

[agent_haun]

Scary.........

 

[amandaofcols]

We had something like that happen in our neighborhood as well a couple of months ago! One night there were police and fire turcks surrounding this house a couple of blocks from ours. Well, come to find out a lady was murdered there by her husband! At first all they were saying was that she was murdered and they had a suspect but wouldn't specify... Until I found out it was the husband I was soooo freaked out! I wouldn't go outside alone at night, I didn't even like being home alone! But now that we know it was a domestic thing, though horrible, it still makes me feel better than just some random act of violence...

 

[thh20]

OK. Here's the update: (kind of a lunchbag letdown!) apparently, the whole hubbub was a false alarm. Not sure what triggered it... something about a tenant/ landlord living in the basement. But the guy they were putting in the cruiser was the tenant/ landlord/ boyfriend (?) and was released about 5 minutes after he was taken into custody, which would explain why he was heading my way.

Apparently, they had hostage negociators set up in the nearby video store and everything! lol

I guess that would also explain why there was no news coverage... kind of made the police look bad!

What a relief the neighbourhood is still safe!

 

[adymarie]

Got to love living in Toronto. Actually for the most part I feel very safe and i live very close to areas know for gun crime, but my little area is very safe.

Did you see the story about the lady who lost her son to gun violence a few years back, has become an anti-crime advocate and just had her other son arrested for gun/drug crimes. Maybe she should have been more at home with her remaining son. I loved the quote she gave about how her son would never do this (even though he was caught with a gun in his waist band) "I grow my kids right". I didn't know that you grew kids.