"The Name of the Victim Has Not Been Released..."

Something awful has happened. It's really too soon for me to write about it, because I have so few details. But I haven't been able to think about anything else all day...



This morning started off on a positive note -- for me anyway. I was scheduled to work, and I arrived just enough minutes early to allow me to stash my bag and be at my assigned register when the store opened. Not too many customers yet; it was nice to have a chance to talk with my fellow booksellers -- one of whom I had not even met. Things began to pick up gradually then, which meant nice customers to chat with, too. I had begun to feel gratitude, once again, that I had found this job in an environment which suited me so well.



However, not even an hour had gone by when things started to change. I didn't realize how much they had changed until I walked outside after my shift ended at 1:00.



We heard -- not a siren -- but rather, the blare of the horn that an emergency vehicle uses when it approaches a busy intersection. This one was warning customers just leaving the store not to step out into the parking lot -- yet. From the windows behind the row of cash registers, we could tell only that the vehicle had slowed, and then stopped somewhere just beyond our store.



It would be another half-hour or so before customers started trickling in with bits of information -- and lots of questions. Before I left, I was able to piece together that the armored truck driver making a pick-up at the Old Navy Store three or four doors down had been shot. I heard that the suspect had gotten some money, and was still on the loose. More and more customers -- all of whom seemed remarkably calm -- were commenting on the buzz of activity at the shopping center. Apparently there were police cars and camera crews everywhere, and at least part of the shopping center had been closed off -- our part.



As pieces of the story started coming together, it didn't even register in my psyche. That's good. Somehow, the information that a man with a gun had walked into a nearby store and shot another person was able to remain on the "outside." I would not have been able to deal with it-- and continue to work -- if I had let it in.



But now I am home. The television news is carrying the story. Apparently at least three eye witnesses say that the robber was in the store -- either circulating, or hiding in a dressing room -- before the Brinks truck arrived. He was wearing surgical scrubs and a red wig. He did not give the Brinks man a chance to "give up" the money; he just came at him, shooting, as he was leaving the store. The driver was shot three times in the head. A customer who had just come out of the drugstore next door said he was able to say a prayer at the man's feet before the ambulance took him away. The news reports say that he was in critical condition, and that he died later.



They said "The name of the victim has not been released, so that his family may be notified of their loss." (I just knew it would be someone who had a family -- maybe even young children.)



Please join me in praying for that man's family.



That's all I have today. (Not even a picture with this one -- except the one in my mind.)