Today I have an especially good reason to be thankful.

See this blue car? It’s in the middle of a crime scene. In my parents’ front yard.

blue car

Berck and I took a load of firewood to my parents’ house today. As we were pulling into their driveway, we noticed an unmarked cop car with its lights on down the road at the other corner of their lot. The cop car followed us down the driveway, bleeped its siren, and a tiny deputy stepped out and demanded to know why we didn’t stop. (We were stopped.) She asked if we lived here, and I told her my dad did. She said that there was a car parked among the trees in the front yard and it was an active crime scene and to please not come down there. Berck asked her what it was, and she said it involved a homicide.

I went over and found Dad, who was working on the shed. (Mom is in Seattle.) He said his neighbor had called him this morning, asking why there a blue car parked in his front yard. Dad went out and looked at it and called the Sheriff’s department. When the deputies arrived, they were concerned because the house was unlocked and Dad wasn’t in it, because was working in the shed. They told him that they were so glad he called because that was a missing piece of the puzzle they needed.

The deputy still there came back up the driveway and asked Dad what time he’d seen the car. We looked on his phone and saw that his neighbor had called at 8:54 that morning. She had Dad fill out a form. She showed us a picture of this guy and asked if we’d ever seen him before (the news posted his picture several hours later).

She said there were two homicides and one other shooting victim, but that was all she could tell us. She warned Dad that the media might converge on his house once they found out that’s where the car was found, and if they did, she’d put up crime scene tape across the driveway so they wouldn’t drive up, but that she’d put it high enough so Dad could drive in and out if he needed to.

She said they were pretty sure they knew who the shooter was. She said they thought he knew at least one of the victims and at least one of the other victims just happened to get in the way. She said her department had it on their to do list yesterday to see if they could find this guy, but something else had come up and they hadn’t been able to. That night he shot three people.

So we’re not really sure of all the details, but it appears this guy shot someone during a burglary not too far from their house, shot someone else the next road down from their house, then ditched his car in my parents’ front yard.

Today I’m grateful my Dad is okay!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.