Stopping for Death

Is it wrong to dwell only on murders that happen nearby? This weekend some form of the slaughter stopped down the street from me. I had to work an overnight at the hotel and then I missed my bus, so there I was traipsing down Washington in Roslindale on a rainy Sunday morning. I was focused on the woman in scrubs ahead of me, thinking how soaked she would be if she really was going to walk all the way to the VA. Then I saw the cruiser across the road and the cop in his slicker. I figured it was roadwork or maybe a gas leak. He didn't say anything to me or the nurse. Two ambulances were let past, no lights and in no hurry. Then there were more cops, black suited K-9 handlers and plainclothes guys in Red Sox shirts. Police vehicles of every type and big shot detective types with ties and cameras. There were so many of them it felt like a movie set, I kept waiting for them to tell me to leave but they paid me no mind. At first it was hard to tell what they were doing, the nearby Archdale projects generate a lot of crime. Then I caught her eye and she followed me with hers, a young, female black cop standing on a second floor porch with her arms folded. Behind her was the apartment where two people had been murdered.

I could tell you how my house is on a street where those kind of things don't happen or even imply that the victims were probably involved in some nefarious business but enough people are doing that already on the Herald comments section. Instead I just feel numb and angry about it. I have no understanding why it happened or how anyone could have stopped it.

http://www.universalhub.com/crime/more-violence-roslindale-three-shot-two-dead.html