Well, my town (Florence) has made the national news. We've had our first big active shooter situation this afternoon.
I was getting a coffee after work with two friends when their phones started blowing up with texts. Friends of theirs who live in a neighborhood on the west side of town said they were hiding in their houses while gunshots rained down for a solid 45 minutes. Ambulances, medical transport holicopters, and more police cars than you can imagine where flying past when I left to drive home.
So far we've learned that 5 police officers were shot. One has died and two are in critical condition. I also hear that a 20 year old man was found in a home dead of a gunshot wound, and that with the help of police from 3 neighboring counties they had finally gotten the shooter into custody.
It's already on the national headlines:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/5-officers-shot-in-south-carolina-suspect-in-custody/ar-BBNTHZR?ocid=spartanntp
I was so relieved to get home. I nearly cried when I walked through the front door. Madness.
Gregg is at the mayor's office tonight cleaning aquariums, so I'm sure he'll have more information to share when he gets home. I won't be completely at ease until he's here safe and sound.
I still just can't believe it.
Oh my god, no.
ReplyDeleteOh No, I an glad to hear you are safe.
ReplyDeleteHug your sweet dogs till Greg comes home.
gayle
That is scary.Stay safe Jennifer.
ReplyDeleteI've just been hearing about it on the radio; none of us is safe from such outrage these days.
ReplyDeleteI've not heard of this until reading your blog just now; I am sure it was on our main news last night, too, but I did not have the TV on until half an hour later. I can understand that you nearly cried when you got home!
ReplyDeleteI caught the end of something about Florence on the radio news this morning. Glad you are Ok. a very scary happening so close to home!
ReplyDeleteSuch awful news. All too common these days.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that Trump had tweeted about the Florence shooting. I am sure that this will give you great comfort. A real life horror show like this is far too close to home. My thoughts are with the Florence PD.
ReplyDeleteI heard about it, but didn't know it was your town. Bad.
ReplyDeleteHow I hate to read this. Those pope people.
ReplyDeleteThe United States of guns. I am so sorry to read that this happened around you; no one is safe anymore.
ReplyDeleteOh my! I saw the headline in the NY Times but I didn't realize that shooting happened in Florence. I'll have to go back and read the story now. Glad you and yours are OK! It's terrible that I see headlines like that and just think, "Here we go again."
ReplyDeleteAaaack! That's terrifying.
ReplyDeleteWe don't get any nicer, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read that the shooting was in Florence I thought of you immediately and hoped that you and Gregg were safe.
ReplyDeleteThis is always horrible news but I'm sure totally unnerving when it is so close.
It’s all too much. Way,way too much.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry to hear that your town has gone through this tragedy. I'm glad you are alright, though I imagine you are shaken. Sending good wishes. I also have something else to send you... When you have a moment, pop me a note at RueAndHyssop (at) gmail (dot) com with your mailing address, if you please! xo
ReplyDeleteI just sent it! Thank you so much! I really excited!
Delete*I'm* really excited.
DeleteMy brain works faster than my fingers sometimes!
Thank you all for the comments. We found out that the shooter has a young son enrolled at our school. I had buzzed him in to the building twice last week to sign his son out early. Even worse, 30 minutes before he went on the shooting spree he picked the boy up in our afternoon car line!
ReplyDeleteThe shooter is a 74 year old man with 8 biological kids, and he and his wife have been taking in foster children for years. The police had a search warrant for the house to investigate the sexual assault of one of the foster children by an adult biological son of the man. He got tipped off that the police were coming for his son, possibly by his wife who is a local attorney. He barricaded himself in an upstairs room with all the minor children, an assault rife, and a ton of ammunition and when the first two officers arrived with the search warrant he started spraying them with bullets. They walked into a calculated ambush. He fired so many shots in the next hour that the police had to bring in an armored car to retrieve the wounded police officers. What a nightmare.
One officer died, another is still fighting for her life in intensive care, a third is having a leg amputated because it was too shattered with bullets to save. Four other police officers were shot as well but had less severe injuries. The entire neighborhood is traumatized. There were kids out riding bikes and playing outdoors when the killing spree began.
The father and the adult son accused of sex crimes have been taken into custody. Initial rumors were that the son had been shot and died, but instead he had taken one bullet in all the crossfire but it wasn't a serious one. They had to bring in a negotiator to get the father to surrender, which is what they had to do. All his younger kids were being held hostage in the room with him.
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