We are falling apart over here

*3:10 pm - all clear. The gentleman is being loaded in EMS and headed to the hospital. 

As if I didn't have enough going on, this morning around 8:30, just when I was going to hop in the shower, my friend Helen called and said 2 police cars just sped past her house towards my street.

We looked outside and they were stopped in front of my house and both officers (one was my son, jumped out, guns drawn). 

We do not pick up police on our scanner but heard them stage the ambulance a block away and station fire trucks at both ends of my street to block traffic.  The husband of the girl across the street has a gun and is out in the back yard threatening suicide.  We ended up with a sheriff, five police cruisers, the SWAT team, a Crisis Response Team, Mental Health who travel in an Equinox, I don't know what else. 

We are locked in our houses. My grandson is here and we have been playing tornado drill and hanging out in the windowless utility room. 

Most of these officers have rifles with them and my neighbors are exchanging pictures of shadows of armed men walking by their bedroom windows. 

I had a doctor's appointment and had to call and say SWAT was blocking my driveway and I couldn't come. They allowed me to do a zoom and were all very sweet.  I am going for a PT evaluation on Tuesday. 

It has now been 4 hours, maybe 4 1/2.  We are in the same spot. He is pacing all over the place with his gun. People are stationed everywhere. He almost surrendered and changed his mind. One of my neighbors can hear him talking when he comes closer to his house (next door to her house). 

His wife was inside when she called. About an hour into this, the assistant chief escorted her out safely. I was holding my breath.  I have texted her and invited her to my porch or in my house to wait, but she is still standing outside in 40 degree temps and tells me it will end soon. 

I live in paradise.  I live in a little town where everyone knows your name and remembers your kids names (they have two children, one just graduated and one is in high school). We share flower bulbs and shovel each others sidewalks and I for real have a picket fence.  When people move in, I take them a pie. 

This isn't supposed to happen here.  And no one needs a firearm like the one he has.  

I'm not sure what his struggles are. I know he has been battling health problems since they moved here in 2020.  I pray that he surrenders soon, that the law enforcement officers and his family are all safe, too. And that he willingly takes advantage of help that is offered to him. 

My son is the one whose firearm is holstered while he negotiates with him.  I never dreamed the little boy who rode up and down this sidewalk on his CHIPS plastic motorcycle would be a part of a police drama on the same doorstep.  

There are times when I want to eliminate social media, but it has been a godsend to my neighborhood today. Those of us barracaded are staying in touch by private message since his wife is on our group chat. Those at work are also messaging me. And people who know it is my street are also messaging me. It was interesting during my zoom dr appt. Ding Ding Ding Ding