Shooting Near My Home

This past Monday there was a shooting in my neighbourhood.  Three people wounded, one of them critically, at least two of them bystanders.

It happened in a strip mall just past my local grocery, at 5:40 PM. So, a safe neighbourhood at a safe time of day. Video footage shows three men get into "an altercation", then a fourth man appears and shoots one of the three. He also shot two women who happened to be nearby, then ran away. The police didn't catch or identify him, and it's unknown at this time if he knew the person he targeted.

No matter how I swing it, I can't say there is a scenario that would have put me in that specific place and time. I will say, I wanted to buy bamboo from the dollar store to trellis my tomato plants. From the dollar store, I would have been well within earshot to hear the shots. But instead I took a nap. Remind me to take a nap after work every day from hereon out.

But even if I had gone to the dollar store, I would probably have shown up at like, 7:30, as I am a bit of a procrastinator and don't love going shopping directly after work. Still. If I had run out of paints or canvases, I go the Michael's in front of that shooting. If I were catching up with a friend, I sometimes go the William's in front of that shooting.

This for me, I think is the spookiest case of violence that has happened since I moved to Kitchener.

There was the crossbow murder. That was spooky because it happened right near the grouphome I worked at, the target was chosen randomly, and it happened during the time of day when I would get off work. But the killer was caught and it happened well before I started working there.

There was the body that was found up the street from where I live, but who know why or where that person was killed. My neighbourhood was just a drop spot. Same thing happened in Guelph, when they found the body of a murdered prostitute next to our apartment building. I got questioned by police. They eventually found the killer and the act was done well outside the city, although the victim was a girl from our street.

There was the murderer that was discovered in our complex, that I got to get see taken down by people in unmarked vans, wearing body armour and carrying assault rifles. But he was on the run from Montreal, which is where he did his killing, and it was likely because of a personal conflict between him and his victim.

There was the shooting at Cameron Heights high school, which was right next to where I subletted from for five months after college and would walk past regularly, and the shooting happened in the morning, during school hours. I knew people who knew people who knew the target. But the only one killed was the target and it was gang-related.

But in this case, even though nobody was killed, it happened in an area I go to regularly, at a time of day that should be safe, and two people who were uninvolved were attacked. I could easily have been one of the people who got shot.

I thought about going to get bamboo today and I literally decided against it because I was scared. I wound up using recycled bamboo from last year to trellis my tomato plants. So that's one thing in favour of living in a violent area. It promotes recycling.