The Wind Cries Mary
Apr. 13th, 2023 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tracker7Housemate gave me a lift to pick up my rental truck - another big ol' Ford chassis with a box on it - and while starting to load it, we got some news.
A 25-year-old man walked into Old National Bank at Main & Preston, went into a boardroom, and started shooting. Killed four people, shot four or five more, one of whom died a couple of days later. LMPD responded about three minutes after the first call came in - one of the first officers on the scene was shot, but if I'm reading things right, his partner killed the shooter with some stellar fucking marksmanship.
This stupid culture, the fetishization, the lack of mental health care. All of it. Dammit, five people dead, others injured.
I don't often have good words for LMPD, as an organization. I've dealt with some good officers in my time there, and had to put up with some absolute jackasses. The department is in need of a thorough overhaul. But Monday morning, some officers did work. And I'm heartbroken over the officer who was shot. He was new to the force - very new. Graduated from the academy on March 31. Ten days later, he's responding to a nightmare scenario, and doing what he's trained to - what he's supposed to - and he takes a 5.56mm round to the head. He's alive, but I can't imagine he'll ever see anything like a recovery. 26 years old, had been a firefighter, looks like a family history of public service.
I don't pray, but if I did, Officer Nickolas Wilt would be getting all I could send.
A 25-year-old man walked into Old National Bank at Main & Preston, went into a boardroom, and started shooting. Killed four people, shot four or five more, one of whom died a couple of days later. LMPD responded about three minutes after the first call came in - one of the first officers on the scene was shot, but if I'm reading things right, his partner killed the shooter with some stellar fucking marksmanship.
This stupid culture, the fetishization, the lack of mental health care. All of it. Dammit, five people dead, others injured.
I don't often have good words for LMPD, as an organization. I've dealt with some good officers in my time there, and had to put up with some absolute jackasses. The department is in need of a thorough overhaul. But Monday morning, some officers did work. And I'm heartbroken over the officer who was shot. He was new to the force - very new. Graduated from the academy on March 31. Ten days later, he's responding to a nightmare scenario, and doing what he's trained to - what he's supposed to - and he takes a 5.56mm round to the head. He's alive, but I can't imagine he'll ever see anything like a recovery. 26 years old, had been a firefighter, looks like a family history of public service.
I don't pray, but if I did, Officer Nickolas Wilt would be getting all I could send.