Crazy morning here.
I'm getting dressed in my bathroom after a shower. I hear my dog barking a pretty vicious "get outta here" kind of bark. I start hurrying to see what's up. We're out in the desert on 2.5 acre parcels. It takes more than the gardener to get her barking like this, but it happens sometimes when it's no big deal.
I hear my daughter scream. Okay she's 16 and it could be something gross on Youtube but combined with the dog I'm concerned and hustling to see what's up. She starts POUNDING on the bathroom door... screaming....
"Dad, the murderer is in our backyard, the killers are in our yard, I'm serious!!!!"
I open the door with a confused whaaaaaa!!?? I don't know of any murderers at the moment. She runs behind me clearly shaken.
"I saw him. It's the murderer!!!!"
The dog has gone ape####. So I run down the hall to the family room...
Where I make strong eye contact with
this guy.... who's holding the doggie door shut with my dog going nuts... and who unbeknownst to me was featured on Facebook by our local pd as identified in a morning shooting and on the run...
Also another guy who looks just like that guy is vomiting on my patio...
I run back down the hall to get a gun and call 911 (unfortunately in that order, and hating myself for it). Yep, I'm one of those and this may be an example of a thousand things I don't want to talk about because WOW was this intense. The gun safe was INTENSE. I SAW my heart pound. The sound of the dog seemed distorted and REALLY loud. Took a very deep breath, racked a round, told my kid to lock herself in the bathroom (she didn't). I tried to channel how cool and collected my dad always was in a crisis, and I yelled down the hall as loud as I could (probably sounding something like that demon from Amityville)...
"GETTTT OOOOUUUUUTTTT!!! I am armed!!! I called the cops!!!!", that last bit being a lie.
Then I looked, and saw one of them running. Then I saw a cop, handgun in hand, cross my property like Usain Bolt. I ran to the window and cop #2 saw me and my .45, he yelled to me that they had two on the run and to stay inside. My dog snarled at my garage door. I yelled at the cop to check my garage. He did. Clear. IN-ephing-TENSE.
Pukeface, the shooter's brother, was apprehended on the street two houses down, in violation of parole. Alleged murderer in the link made it another mile. My yard was searched for 30 minutes seeking the potential murder weapon. No luck. Not sure if the lady he shot made it.
I'm having tequila with my beer. And I have a teen daughter who stayed home from school today feeling poorly, who happened to see this story breaking on our city facebook page, then went face to face with the shooter through our dining room window. Just wow. She was shaken for an hour or so, but the cop who searched our yard was really hot, made her feel safe, complimented me for no good reason, told her she was lucky to have a dad like me (really for her benefit not because I reacted great) and now she's doing her homework acting like nothing happened. She's gonna have nightmares, right?