Bad things..

I recently posted of our trip back to Nebraska and how much fun we had.  We drove by my old schools, the house we lived in, my best friend Eleanor's house and the old Dairy Queen: my first job.  We even cruised down the "Butte," which is Alliance's main street.  Driving down the Butte and hearing that old familiar sound the tires made as we drove over that long brick road brought back so many memories.  Good memories.  It was awesome.


Well Alliance and the "Butte" made national news yesterday for something very tragic and unfortunate. There was a robbery at a pharmacy that went awry and it escalated into a very long and tense hostage situation that resulted in almost the entire town on lockdown.  How scary must that have been for the people directly involved, or the people in the surrounding businesses having to be locked in and not knowing when  or even if they would be allowed to go home to their families?!


I couldn't believe that what I was reading was happening in Alliance, the town where I spent so many years of my childhood and more importantly, the town that I felt the safest while growing up.  I've posted of how we moved so much growing up and we did, but we always ended up back in Alliance.  I just couldn't reconcile this event happening in Alliance.  This was the town where I walked to school and everywhere else we needed to go to every single day with Eleanor and Elaine and can honestly say that I didn't ever have the fear of something bad happening to us.  Ever.  Bad things happened in other places, not in Alliance.


All day, I was glued to the updates on Alliiance's newspaper's website and finally their local radio station's facebook page.  After reading that a couple police officers had been shot, I felt panic and prayed that the police could bring the situation under control without any more people being hurt.  I read that the hostage was also injured while attempting to escape and I couldn't get what was happening out of my mind.


Then there was a report of a homicide at another location in town and I knew in my heart that this had something to do with what was happening downtown.  Then I heard that the homicide was indeed related to the downtown incident.


I finally read that the situation was over late last night.  The gunman was killed and his identity was released.
He was not someone I knew, but I knew a couple members of his family.  And my heart breaks for them.  Nobody wins in these kind of situations.


I have so much respect for the responding police officers and their families.  May God bless each and every one of them as they heal from this ordeal.  Even though the police in little 'ol Alliance and the surrounding towns that responded, had always been fortunate enough to not need experience in handling these types of situations, they did an amazing job and they selflessly put their lives on the line for their community.
Please keep these officers, the hostage, their families and everyone else involved in your prayers.
And also pray that the people of Alliance heal from this horrible day.