Eye witness to a murder

Yesterday, May 1st, 2012 at 6:02 pm I witnessed a cold blooded murder 30 feet away.

I was driving home from the coffee shop after drinking a relaxing brew and chatting with one of my dearest friends.  I had just turned off of 3rd Ave W onto 30th street eastward bound headed for my house near the Bush blvd,  As I was passing the red car wash place, approaching Lady Hair Doctor's Salon, a twenty something black man walking on the sidewalk on the right started yelling and jumped into the middle of my lane.  He's still walking east and I'm about 35 feet behind him.  And I can't go around him because there's a car approaching from the opposite direction about a half a block down.  This is annoying; my desired speed was 15-20 miles an hour and now I'm stuck behind an angry man walking 1 mile per hour, and he doesn't have insurance, brake lights, or turn signals.

The oncoming car slowed down and stopped right beside me, directly in front of the salon (where I get my hair cut).  At the same time, the man in front of me stopped; he was about 15 feet away.   There were two black guys in the car to my left and they both got out of the car.  They looked to be late twenties or maybe early thirties in age.  I was sitting there staring at the guy in front of me (now in the middle of the street) cussing like a sailor pointing his finger at the driver of the car to my left.  The driver of the car beside me replied "You got something for me, bring it on." in a firm somewhat confident tone.

I was sitting there with a chagrined look on my face thinking "Yep, I know. You black. You angry. And you can't decide which side of the street to stand on. Take your time man."  The passenger of the car beside me leaned over and with a relatively assertive voice tells me "Go around him!”  He knew what was about to go down and was concerned for my safety.  I pulled ahead slowly and navigated all the way into the left lane an inch from the curb to squeeze by the loud one.

In the hood, behavior consistent with that of a role model (i.e. adult) is not common.  I went to the stop sign 40 feet down the street and sat there glued to my rear view mirror.  

The angry one and the driver were about 6 feet apart; driver calm with hands in pockets, angry one yelling out a continuous flow of threatening verbiage and matching international sign language - it looked like he was going to throw a punch at any moment.  Suddenly the driver simultaneously stepped back and pulled his hands out of his pockets, raised his elbow high, arched his right hand downward and POP - shot the angry guy - looked like in the chest on the right side.

The driver said something (I couldn't hear too clearly) like "What you gona say now <explicative>?"  The look on the angry guy's face was harrowing, shocked, the look of a man whose life was passing before his eyes.  He looked at his chest, then back up at the driver - in stunned silence, lowered his right hand to the ground and sat down for maybe 5 seconds. The emotion on his face changed from shock to anger.  He looked up at the driver said something I couldn't hear, stood up and started walking away from the driver.  About step one and half away, the driver jumped forward, hand extended - POP, POP: two shots - looked like to the back of the head - possibly neck or upper chest.   The now quiet angry man - Hm.  Wait a minute.  My attention turns to my presence here; 

Mentally bookmark this place in the narrative; this is where my day got REALLY interesting.

I put the car in reverse, back up to about 10 feet lifeless victim, jumped out and looking the driver in the eye; DUDE, LISTEN THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!! - The decision you make in the next ten seconds is going to change your life.  You have three options.  1) Bust a cap in me and spend the rest of your life in jail, 2) Take off in your car and spend the next five years in jail, or 3) You can let me hook you up with some secret white stuff and you can be chilling at your home tomorrow.  Do you have warrants?  "No man, I got no warrants." Are you on paper? "No"; OK – You’re set then.

Cuz, come here; pay attention.  Dude, listen carefully; this is what just happened: I saw an angry threatening black man who stopped me in the street by standing in front of my car yelling obscenities; you knew he was a bad guy and you know me because I mow your cousin’s ex-girlfriend's grand momma’s grass for free.  You were concerned for my safety and stopped your car.  Cuz directed me out of harm’s way while you verbally instructed crazy-man to leave me alone.   Crazy-man turned his rage toward you; he lunged toward you threatening your life.  You feared for your life and shot him in the chest.  He was stunned and a little disoriented, but none the less still in maniacal rabies dog like rage and appeared to be reaching for something in his pants.

Having seen that I was a safe distance away, unarmed Cuz yelled at crazy man "Leave us alone." - The man turned away from you and possibly having an unknown weapon and lunged towards Cuz (standing across the street); you feared for Cuz's life and fired twice more towards the assailant's head.

Got it - "all right; thanks man."  Put the gun on the trunk of your car and walk over here to my car.  Place your hands on your forehead so your palms cover your eyes and relax till the police get here.

They're going to question you guys separately - put you in a white room that smells rancid, deprive you of water, food, and sleep.  You're going to hear lies about what they know or were told; THIS IS IMPORTANT - your vocabulary for the next 24 hours has two words: "LEGAL COUNSEL".  That's all you need to say.  When they finally give you a lawyer, tell him what happened and let him tell them.  You might not even get arrested.

What a day!.

Epilogue

Uncle.  Sorry, everything between the "REALLY interesting" bookmark and here didn't actually happen.  Here is the actual rest of the (real) story:

I wondered if driver or Cuz realizes I was sitting at the stop sign glued to my rear view mirror.  I looked back again; yep - Cuz is looking right at me.  Ok; maybe I should go ahead and turn the corner before dialing 911.  I turned left, went half a block, pulled my phone out, my hand is shaking n n n nine, w w w one, one; "You have reached 911 do not hang up", "You have reached 911 do not hang up", what the heck? It took 20 seconds to get a live person, and then (because of the hill I'm driving over) the call drops.  I dialed again and got an operator immediately; I just witnessed a man shoot another man - "What location?" Cullman Street and third avenue west right beside the lady hair doctor salon, right across from the red car wash place.  "Cullman does not intersect 3rd Avenue.", Oh, just a minute - I'm circling around. Ok - 30th street and third, half a block up 30th. Should I hang around to give a statement to the police?  "No, you don't need stay"  Do you have my number?  "Yes, we have it." Do you want my name? "Just your first name."  I gave it and hung up.

About 30 seconds later I get a phone call; she called back and asked for a description of the car and the shooter.  The ambulance showed up in four minutes.  That's an incredible response time.  I don't think the angry one made it though.  The police showed up and locked down the block, put the police tape all over the place and did the CSI thing.  I'm a little surprised they haven't contacted me to get a statement while it's fresh in my mind.

I've shared the (real) story with friends and co-workers about a dozen times now, and the reactions are consistently racially divided so far. The black reaction berates the victim for being stupid - "What kind of fool picks a fight with a man with a gun? - That’s a shame.  Everybody knows who the thugs are - what was he thinking?"  The white reaction is one of concern and sorrow - "That's horrific, life lost in the blink of an eye; what a waste of human potential.  I am so sorry you saw that happen; are you sure you're safe over there? - You need to move somewhere safer.  I hope they catch the shooter."  To me, that's the real shame.