« Worst. Wife. Ever. | Main | Fan-fuckintastic. We are now the lead story on CNN.com »

May 20, 2007

What the F----k Is Going On?

Last night, around 11:30pm, Dave and I had just crawled into bed. We heard a series of pops.

Gunfire.

Both of us put down our books and looked at each other. (What? He's 40. I'm 39. We're both academically inclined. We read in bed.)

No. Must be fireworks. People don't shoot off semi-automatic weaponry here.

(More pops. And then LOTS more pops.)

No. Definitely gunfire. At a relatively safe distance from our house, but still. Not used to hearing semi-automatic gunfire in the middle of the night here.

Dave went out the front door to see if he could determine where it was coming from. He came back in about three minutes later. "Sounds like it's coming from Downtown." We had a big old conversation about whether it could be drug-related (we assumed so), what the hell could be happening, didn't there appear to be two different kinds of weapons? (Semi-automatic thingy & what sounded like a shotgun.) And then we made a couple of silly jokes about it probably being acquaintances of ours and went to sleep. Because it appeared to be over.

Only, of course, as these things go, it isn't over. It's just beginning. Now we have to deal with the deaths of at least two members of our community and all of the fear and gossip and recrimination and the wondering why.

I don't know anything more than the following:

1) Somebody holed up in the 1st Presbyterian Church (yes, the one right across the street from your old apartment, Heather) and fired off a volley of shots into the County Courthouse, which is about a block and a half away and down the hill.

2) As officers from the courthouse responded, they were shot.

3) The last shot heard was at 1am.

4) Three teams from the Idaho State Police, Lewiston Police and Whitman County (in Washington) forced entry to the church at 6am this morning and found two white male bodies in separate rooms on the main floor. One of those bodies also had a rifle, casings and ammunition near it.

I also know that someone is in surgery and that witnesses think one officer may be dead. I know that at least five people were wounded and two killed. And that there is a press conference at 9am. I also know that my husband is being really cranky and predicting stupid and paranoid responses on the part of Moscow residents that include a restriction of existing civil liberties. I'm trying to remember that it's a university town, and that means that a fair amound of reasoned discourse will probably take place.

And as a bonus for those who have read this far, the Spokane news anchor's stupid statement, the one I heard on TV just now, "As to how somebody got a high-powered rifle into a church in broad daylight, we just don't know."

I have some things to say about that:

Dude. For starters, it wasn't broad daylight. It was 11:30pm. Most people here were either in bed or in bars. So not only was it dark, it was probably pretty quiet. Someone could walk down the street with an elephant, and unless it made a noise, no one would notice.

Secondly, many churches leave a door unlocked so that anyone needing solace can find it at any time of day or night. I don't know if that's the case here, but given the usual quietness of this little town, it may well be.

Finally, it's Moscow, Idaho. People have guns in their cars. People walk around with guns in cases on the street. Not all the time, but I see it. (Sort of like meth use in Spokane, Buddy. Pretty common practice.) I've even seen a guy carrying a naked rifle into the pawn shop. No case. Just a gun. That was my first week here. I had a minor freakout about it.

Mind you, I still am not comfortable with guns randomly hanging on racks in vehicles. It's pretty easy to break into an old Ford to steal one. Nor am I all that keen on seeing people walk down the street with what is clearly a gun case. But they sell guns in sporting goods stores. Because people here hunt. It's a rural town in a fairly game-friendly area. Guns are all over the place. Yes, I would get really uncomfortable seeing someone with a high-powered rifle walk down the street in the middle of the night, but as I mentioned in my first point, there wouldn't be a lot of people around to notice.

I'm just glad, as Dave said last night, that it wasn't those same shots coming from campus in the middle of the day.

Posted by sally at May 20, 2007 07:49 AM

Comments

Jessica Smith is sleeping on my couch for the weekend, and she got a phone call today about this--she was who first told me. Then we found stories online and watched the cnn about it. It took me a few moments to realize that it was across the street from my old apartment, and that really kind of shook me this morning. I am so very glad I don't live there anymore, but I do concur with Sally that you could easily walk down that street with anything you wanted as long as you were quietly doing it.

I just saw on CNN that a police officer did die (the first in the line of duty in the history of Moscow according to Officer Duke) as well as the two in the church, and I just hope that Moscow can heal from this.

U of I grads here in Chicago were very shaken by footage of SWAT teams in the back of a truck on the main street by the theatre where I saw movies and the best place to eat breakfast. I was on the phone with Hathaway last night while it was happening, but he must live farther away from it then you do because I don't recall any talk of gunfire.

Posted by: fire4hairlady [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 20, 2007 09:36 AM

Well that's good to know. That Hath's okay, I mean. I could just see him being the civilian who went to help. He's that kind of generous and involved.

I haven't been downtown yet. We were going to have lunch at the Breakfast Club. Dave's at school. It's so strange.


Posted by: Sallyacious [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 20, 2007 09:54 AM

I talked to him this afternoon, and he affirmed your thoughts that he would be the civilian to go help. He told me that if he had heard gunfire while we were on the phone, he would have gone out to see what he could do.

Posted by: fire4hairlady [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 20, 2007 04:09 PM

©2006 - All content copyright Sally Eames-Harlan unless otherwise noted