Bang bang...

OK.....so....um...I go to work Tuesday afternoon/night right? Everything is normal and moving along like any other Tuesday night. Questions are asked and answered...role is taken...check ins are done and things are moving along. I run three groups back to back and each are two hours.

We are in the second of the night and in comes a familiar face...I have seen him only once before. He was very somber the first time...acts as if he is not interested and just not really a part of the process. I have seen this before...more than once or twice. Apathy...anger for being there...the you ain't gonna control me attitude...the you're just another one of "them" vibe...but at the end of this second group...this night...after sitting through two thirds of the night as stated above...his face changed. He grinned from ear to ear and his face lit up...he was animated and alive...and quite different. I got a check in he says. He has met a girl.

He carries on about this for some time and I do my usual thing...listen and look for areas he might not be conscious of or thinking about...areas where he might be able to improve on how he is treating this relationship, his partner, and himself...so that I can advise him and teach....so that I can find a way to help....in other words do my job...

I let the class go at the end of the two hours and I have another group coming in...about 7:00 in the evening...and as they are passing each other in the parking lot...this individual heads to his car...the following is told to me from members of both groups...because I remained in the group room.

Apparently...as he approached his car which is parked on the street right next to the parking lot where all the other group members are parked...he approaches his car on the passenger side. No one else is with him or in the car. Suddenly a black truck whips around the nearest corner...drives straight up to his car and opens fire. This is located directly in front of a house which houses young kids...adult teens mostly...who are pregnant or having other life issues and troubles...two of which are standing on the porch of the house as this happens. Of course everyone ducks and runs for cover.

I still do not know at this time what happened to my group member. I went out and inspected the scene about an hour later when my current group was on break. There was a lot of broken glass and shell casings covering the ground right next to the car. The shooters could not have been more than approximately five or six feet from the vehicle when they opened fire. There was no blood and no bodies thank God. Not like the last shooting...the one by my house. My group guy must have gotten away...but of course that is my assumption based on the evidence I viewed at the scene.

There was a line of bullet holes approximately three to four feet wide and maybe eight to ten inches high along the middle of the drivers side door. One bullet hole through the center of the drivers window. Approximately thirteen bullet holes and shots fired in all. I took a flashlight and peered in without touching anything from the passengers side window which was intact. The bullets clearly went all the way through the drivers side door of the vehicle. If anyone had been actually in the car...they would have been killed...no doubt about it in my mind.

This was no warning. They were trying to murder this man.

As I said...on the groups break...I was out there an hour after the shooting for about ten minutes. The police had not yet arrived. There were approximately eight to ten neighbors standing around in the street looking at the car and surrounding scene...two of them...two women were on their cell phones with 911. They reported to the group that they were both being told that the police would not come out until the owner of the vehicle called in. I told my group that we needed to finish and so we went back in and finished our last hour.

As I left for home...one hour later...after inspecting the scene...and two hours after the shooting had happened...I walked out and found one police car parked next to the shot up vehicle. I approached the police car and gave the police officer the information I knew...and he requested...with one exception...I just let him know I wasn't positive about the constraints of confidentiality in regards to the group members which "might" have been witnesses to the crime. I gave him contact information for myself and the agency and he told me that detectives would be in touch. Somewhere in the middle of all that I had called Heather to let her know I would be late coming back from work and that I was OK.

So...anywah...once again...twice within the past three months...I am left with the feeling of being ultimately disrespected and overwhelmed because other people...my suspicion is young males...possibly even young adult males....who do not understand what actual self-respect is...and how to define themselves as men...and instead think....as thugs...that respect and being a man has something to do with violence. We are in a need to call to arms...the lack of real "men" in our society...men who will take care of their business....not by endangering other people and children...but will be there to parent and raise their children...because a "man" can not be a "father" from a jail cell or from a casket.

For those fathers out there...who might be reading this...please...please....be there to raise your children...and do a good job at doing that...because the consequences that we all pay...when your child does something like this violent act...simply because they did not have a "real man" around while growing up...is the worst sin a father can commit...and the heaviest burden a man can carry...knowing that your child is living this kind of life...

Sorry to be so heavy handed...maybe I am really feeling it right now...because it is all so fresh...no maybe about it...I am fairly stressed out by being exposed to two shootings in three months...but I am working through it...I just wish....wish...it would stop...before anyone else gets hurt...or worse...God forbid...