Thoughts from last night

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[Ben]:	Thoughts from last night	Discuss This [0 comments so far] View Comments
Cara and I live in a decent neighborhood. A shooting at a teen's birthday party is not exactly a common happening. As we arrived home from a dinner with friends, we noticed a large number of cars parked all around the intersection by our home. We had to weave through parked vehicles and loud, milling teenagers just to get to our driveway. As we were preparing for bed when we heard a series of loud popping noises. Recently someone had been setting off fireworks in our neighborhood, but this sounded different. Cara turned to me and asked "Was that gunfire?" I grabbed a rifle, turned off the lights in our room and told Cara to stay in the bathroom. Another series of shots crackled outside; someone was cranking off rounds very quickly. Slipping downstairs, I saw a bunch of young men running away from a house across the intersection from ours - that was all the confirmation I needed. Running back upstairs, I found my phone and called 911. According to my phone, it was 2342 when I placed that call. Just as I started to give my address, I heard sirens and told the operator to disregard as the police were already arriving. Police response was fantastic. Some things I learned: Cara and I don't have a well-defined plan for this sort of thing. That will change. I was too hesitant to call 911. While this party was much larger and much louder than others in our neighborhood, I didn't listen well enough to Cara's concerns which she voiced even as we were pulling into our driveway. She read aggression and violence from what I just saw as a group of teenagers standing around. I need to listen better to her. So far I haven't seen anything on the news about the incident. As I learn more, I'll share. I'm still not sure what caused the shooting or what was hit. Update: 1030 My neighbor's house took at least one bullet. The hole is in the wall of his two-year-old son's room. Needless to say, we are even more unhappy about this.