This Wednesday, the whole family was congregated at the Bastrop home of one of our sisters awaiting the arrival of others from throughout the state (Dallas, Corpus Christi) when we got a phone call from Dallas that one of our relatives had very nearly been injured in a shootout between police and a carjacker.
It seems that Lydia was pumping gas in a Lewisville gas station and had forgotten her credit card and went inside the RaceTrac gas station to pay with cash.
As she was coming out of the door, she noticed a man with a shotgun trying to carjack a woman in the stall next to where her car was parked. Police officers were swarming around the station and the woman fell to the ground when he demanded her car. He then got out and pointed the shotgun at the police.
Gunshots rang and the shotgun-toting man fell dead. In the ensuing bedlam, the entire area was cordoned, including Lydia's car and she was ordered to stay and make a statement on what she had seen.
The dead man has now been identified as 22-year-old David Thomas, of Garland, and we now know that he had stolen a car, abandoned it at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant and stole another and was involved in a road rage incident where he showed the other driver the shotgun. With police chasing him, he crashed into three other cars and then rant o the RaceTrac gas station where Lydia was pumping gas and where Thomas was shot by the police.
His father was quoted as saying that his son had issues with drug abuse.
Throughout the shootout, Lydia had sought refuge behind an ice-dispensing machine in front of the store. It would be hours after the shooting when she was finally allowed to leave the gas station.
When Lydia and her brood got to Bastrop, she was still shaken from the incident.
But after an uneventful (thankfully) Thanksgiving dinner and family reunion, she went to sleep at a nearby motel and returned early Friday for the family's farewells.
When she entered the door, the local televisions stations were abuzz with the story of the gunman who attacked downtown buildings and the Mexican Consulate in Austin, Texas, a few miles away from Bastrop.
Police also shot the man after a confrontation.
They say that Larry Steve McQuilliams, 49, of Austin. fired hundreds of rounds at the Austin Police Department and the Mexican Consulate before being shot. Police were trying to determine whether it was one of their bullets that felled him or whether he had shot himself.
And he may have had political reasons, say police.
When asked if it was a political attack on the government, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said: "If you look at the targets that were hit, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that that's a potential."
The political discourse around immigration, he added, "becomes very heated and very angry and sometimes the rhetoric is not healthy".
The dead man has now been identified as 22-year-old David Thomas, of Garland, and we now know that he had stolen a car, abandoned it at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant and stole another and was involved in a road rage incident where he showed the other driver the shotgun. With police chasing him, he crashed into three other cars and then rant o the RaceTrac gas station where Lydia was pumping gas and where Thomas was shot by the police.
His father was quoted as saying that his son had issues with drug abuse.
Throughout the shootout, Lydia had sought refuge behind an ice-dispensing machine in front of the store. It would be hours after the shooting when she was finally allowed to leave the gas station.
When Lydia and her brood got to Bastrop, she was still shaken from the incident.
But after an uneventful (thankfully) Thanksgiving dinner and family reunion, she went to sleep at a nearby motel and returned early Friday for the family's farewells.
When she entered the door, the local televisions stations were abuzz with the story of the gunman who attacked downtown buildings and the Mexican Consulate in Austin, Texas, a few miles away from Bastrop.
They say that Larry Steve McQuilliams, 49, of Austin. fired hundreds of rounds at the Austin Police Department and the Mexican Consulate before being shot. Police were trying to determine whether it was one of their bullets that felled him or whether he had shot himself.
And he may have had political reasons, say police.
When asked if it was a political attack on the government, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said: "If you look at the targets that were hit, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that that's a potential."
The political discourse around immigration, he added, "becomes very heated and very angry and sometimes the rhetoric is not healthy".
President Barack Obama recently took action, bypassing Congress, to lift the threat of deportation for more than four million undocumented people living illegally in the US.
What we had been looking forward to, a quiet day of thanksgiving with family, was not to be this year. Drug abuse, the ongoing immigration debate, protesters in Ferguson and more senseless deaths all intruded into the day which was mean to be one of giving thanks.
Welcome to our brave new world.
What we had been looking forward to, a quiet day of thanksgiving with family, was not to be this year. Drug abuse, the ongoing immigration debate, protesters in Ferguson and more senseless deaths all intruded into the day which was mean to be one of giving thanks.
Welcome to our brave new world.
No comments:
Post a Comment