Two pops, to acoustic echoes, just around the corner someone was dead in a van. It’s the sixth homicide in town this year and we’re only thirty six odd days into it…
“Vancouver recorded its sixth homicide of 2008 Friday when a man was shot dead while sitting in his van at the 300 block of Carrall Street in the city’s infamous Downtown Eastside.
The Vancouver Police Department’s major crime and forensic identification teams have launched an investigation into the incident, which occurred at around 6:30 p.m. The man died at the scene.”
Gunshots, despite what they sound like in the movies or on television, sound unique in real life. The four that I heard last night, as I’m not even a half block away, were two in reality, as the two reports produced echoes off nearby buildings. They were the short, sharp, pops of a handgun.
Rumors spread last night around the neighbourhood that up to four people had been killed, but having read the news this morning, I discovered that there was only one victim.
Of course, it’s business as usual around here this morning, and nothing seemed at all different when I went to get coffee.
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It’s an every day thing now - not just in Vancouver, but in surrounding areas of the lower mainland. Guns are the new way to settle disputes apparently.
We had quite a scary incident happen a week or so ago…my daughter was being driven home by a friend and his Dad when all of a sudden two vans (one in front of them, the other behind) starting firing at each other! The two kids ducked down in the back seat and by the time my daughter arrived home a few seconds later, she was white as a ghost and trembling.
And of course nothing was even mentioned on the news, despite the fact that the street was filled with cops picking up shell casings for the remainder of the night.
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The world is a scary place. I remember a few years back here in Calgary 2 guys parked in a car were shot dead in the parking lot of a 7-11, which also was my bus stop. It had happened maybe 30 mins prior but then again I was running late.
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While people are obviously worried about their own safety, I think most people don’t care because the people being killed all seem to be ‘known to police’. As long as innocent bystanders aren’t involved, you’re right, it seems to be business as usual.
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It’s interesting how people can just go on with their lives as if nothing happened. Shows how detached we are from one another, even the people which we share a community with.
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Apparently you live in an “infamous” area.
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That’s actually really eerie, because I recall a lot of goings about with cops here last night too.
There was just a lot of yelling, Sirens blazing around what seemed like all over town..
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I fail to see how going on with your life is being detached from your neighborhood. I think mostly people just feel powerless to change things, and so they don’t.
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I live in the Philly area..its acutally about 10 mins from where I live.. I work in Philly. And in one night 6 people had been killed in the inner part of the city. That was roughly three weeks ago. Our former mayor, John *Im a Crook* Street, laid off about 150 police officers over the course of a year and in doing that, the crime rate escalted leaps and bounds.
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Sadly, Toronto has had the same number of homicides so far this year. And two of them were innocent bystanders, shot down by bullets intended for someone else. One while just working at his job at a small neighbourhood grocery store.
It is a sad reflection on our society when the answer for disputes so often seems to be handled by violence, particularly by our youth.
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Whatever happened to just a plain ole fist fight? I, in no way advocate violence. but that by far is better then death.. but violence just begets violence.
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Quoting hopeforchange:
Oh, fist fights are still a major part of how shit gets settled around the world. It’s just that when you’re finished delivering the ass whoopin’ the other guy probably instigated and deserved, they go get a gun and shoot you.
People are cowardly, lemme tell ya.
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Wow, we heard about this, this morning on the way to Grouse.. Unless it was something different by 7am this am? They said some police incident had the road closed by where you live…. dude, that is scarey….. and concerning.
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Yeah Calgary is also getting pretty bad.. I remember when I moved here 10yrs ago from shuswap lake there was not that much crime. Just last month some lady was stalked on the C-Train and beaten and killed when she got off the train. Its just sickening
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That’s scary. Kind of makes me glad that I don’t go around that area anymore. Eek.
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Good to see all that gun control, and all that money spent on the registry, has worked so well.
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I was on the same block last evening when this shooting happened. I had arrived in Van for the first time only 6 hours earlier. I had walked the length of E. Hastings earlier that day and was mesmerized by the public displays of disparity. I have been in a lot of dodgy places, but this was quite possibly the worst. People smoking rock or shooting up in just about every doorway I passed. The weirdest part was how it all just seemed like an accepted and normal existance down there. A little strip of road that exists like a vacuum inside the rest of this oppulent, sprawling, booming metropolis. Maybe it was the jetlag, maybe it was the rain, but it almost felt post-apocalyptic… and that was before the shooting. I heard 9 shots. I can still hear them in-fact. pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop. Succinct and in perfect time like a jack hammer. I have never been that close to a homicide before. Gotta say, didnt really dig it.
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Quoting Frozen Tex:
True.
Houston is much safer.
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Fucking hell.