This story brought tears to my eyes. In St. Louis a man apparently parked a pickup truck in a driveway across from his own house. He started the truck on fire and then went into his house to wait.
Firefighters rushed to the scene, expecting to risk life and limb to put out a fire before it burned down the house in whose driveway it was sitting. Not so. The man across the street openned fire on them as they jumped out of the fire truck – killing a 22 year old firefighter. Police officers responding to the fire were also fired upon and two were injured.
The neighborhood had to be evacuated at 5 am to get the other residence out of harms way. An evacuation requires officers and firemen go door to door to get people out – it isn’t like they can use a bullhorn from the safety of their vehicle.
Eventually, the house the man was hiding in started fire (the article doesn’t say how) and burned to the ground. Police are unsure if the man died inside the house but believe he didn’t slip past them either.
Every day we ask men and women to put their lives on the line to protect us and our property. To think that someone would be so calloused as to set this whole thing up in order to kill those who responded to help, just slices at the very heart of me. I know it is something that upsets me because I work in law enforcement but I would hope it gives everyone a moment’s pause. What kind of world do we live in? Why are people being so insane? I just don’t know.
