When I got home and I was re-hydrating and cooling down, I took a look at facebook. A friend of ours that just moved onto our street had said something about not being able to get home with her groceries because the cops were blocking her street. My mind first went to, "well, maybe they have the front gate closed," and I told her to go in the back gate. Of course it was then that I noticed that there were, in fact, police on our street and they weren't letting people on our street. Um, weird! Eventually my friend brought her cold groceries to my house and we stashed her things in our fridge until she could eventually get home - hours later!
As she was sitting at my house, we were just watching out the window...for hours! Eden provided us with entertainment on the inside of the house and the action outside provided entertainment on the out the window. Eden had someone new to entertain, and she took full advantage of that. Outside we thought things were starting to wrap up - it had been almost 2 hours and the Base CO had come and gone. Boy, were we wrong! Things were just getting started!
Around 12:30 I noticed that a friend of mine was leaving the street in her family car. This was odd because it was nap time for her little girl, why would they leave? She sent me a text and told me that they had been asked to leave because there was a standoff on our street and they were bringing in SWAT! Seriously? SWAT? Wow, this was serious! As the SWAT truck was driving down our street to get to the house they were dealing with the housing office called on behalf of base security and told me that if I was home it was requested that I not leave the house because they were dealing with a security issue on the street. Uh, yeah, no problem...I don't want to be out when SWAT is around! They wandered the street in their full gear - guns and gas masks included. This is when we realized things were getting super serious down the street.
All in all, the situation went on for about 5 hours, and unfortunately ended in the death of the individual in the standoff. He took his own life. When the news was told to his {we assumed} spouse we could hear the screams from in our house. It was one of the most sad things I've ever seen. The chaplain was there when the news was delivered to her, and she was not left alone after being told this heartbreaking news. After she was escorted off the street by the chaplain, the crime scene was brought in and the house is still taped off.
*Through everything today I never felt like I was personally in any danger. The man was in his home the whole time the situation was going on and the police had the area secured. When the situation began to escalate we were asked to stay in our homes, and there were police monitoring that people were not being put into danger.*
Please say a prayer for all the friends and family of the man who ended his life today, as I know they will be in great emotional pain for some time.
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