So I’m reading a story on the New York Daily News website about a blind man falling to his death in a elevator shaft and mind you it’s tragic, it really is and it’s not a joke until someone leaves the following comment in the open comment section:
Can we get Patterson an apartment there?
Well I guess it still ended OK.
So Saturday I took off to my brother’s place in East Stroudsburg, PA to pick up a couple of air conditioners he was passing off to me since he didn’t need them anymore. He moved there from NJ in September and his new house has central air conditioning. He’s tucked away deep in the woods. There are plenty of houses around his but to give a sufficient description of the type of area of PA I am talking about. For every house out there, the deer population probably has a number to match. And I saw two of those by the way. The first one was dead on the side of the road on my way out to his place. The other I saw deep in the woods behind his house while standing on his back deck.
The trip itself was about an hour drive from my parents’ place in NJ. Took me from GSP to I-280 to I-80.
Going out there I find myself becoming a regular BYOB person since there are only two other people I know who drink the type of intense beer I drink on a regular basis. Two Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPAs and one Smuttynose IPA. I left the one stone beer I had in the fridge and along the way by request I picked up a Smirnoff party pack (booooooooooooooo) and a six pack of Sam Adams Cherry Wheat for my brother since I have successfully converted him that far.
Listened to the Yanks-Sox game on the way out when the Yankees were leading. Didn’t really get to listen when the Red Sox passed them and damn glad for it.
After arriving at his place we drank and talked. I had my wife and kids with me. Kids seemed to enjoy it. I know the Mrs did since she was definitely intoxicated even though she would deny such. My brother’s friends showed up as this turned into the first barbecue of the year for him. His step daughter had a whole host of her teenage friends over and they ate like teenagers. SERIOUSLY!!!!
Here comes that until part….
Now mind you this is gun country so I know you can buy one at a local candy store with no big deal type reasoning. Point in being so direct with this is because while talking to my bro in the backyard we both heard a host of shots. About nine back to back and they all sounded a bit muffled. I didn’t think anything of it. The woods are around and maybe someone is testing their gun right? That’s until I heard the last three shots in what is now a total of 12 and these shots came with clear unobstructed sound.
So now the teenagers go running to the back of the house. Still I am not thinking to much of this and I tell my brother that they are probably running for nothing. So we walk around the side of the house to the front to see for sure ourselves. As we reach his driveway and stand behind one of the many cars parked in it, we see a guy about 19 years of age running towards the house across the street with a gun in hand. He drops the mag clip on the walkway leading up to the stairs at the front of that house. He stops to pick it up and runs the gun inside the house. My brother sees a guy about 23 standing further away next to a car in the street. Bloody nose, bloody mouth, blood covered chest and blood covered shorts. My brother says the guy is calling the cops and begins walking over there. I tell him to take it easy because the kid is in the house with the gun. He keeps walking. I say it again. He keeps walking and then the kid comes jumping out of the house without the gun, but I still jump until I’m sure.
So the guy who was on the phone with the cops tells my brother as he is on the phone calling the cops that he shot his best friend inside the house. 12 TIMES! He claimed it was self defense. Fine whatever. So after listening to this over and over the guy passes out in front of us. I guess he really got his ass kicked in this fight because that’s how it started, as a fight in the street that got carried into the house. So after his little brother helped him regain conciseness the cops began arriving after receiving directions on how to get there from my brother’s girlfriend.
This cop jumps out of the vehicle with a fully loaded assault rifle. The type I have never seen before. Not in the hands of NYPD ESU officers or even by men and women in the armed forces. (Homeland dollars are work here along with a dropping of the assault weapons ban) He tells the shooter to come to the car where he checks him for weapons and have him placed in cuffs and in the back of one of the vehicles. More cops show up in Chargers and SUVs all carrying the same weapons. They storm the house two by four by two formation where they find the man still alive, but holding a gun. I can hear them yelling for him to drop it as they clear the house.
Ambulance is finally called and they arrive five minutes later. Cops originally got there 15 minutes after the initial call to them. (Obviously this is not NYC)
This link can tell the rest of the news story….WEP Story
After the incident while talking to some of my brother’s friends who saw something. Apparently the shooter lives at the house. According to them he was having a get together at the house. As the fight began a number of people had already left because of the mention or showing of a possible gun. Two remain thought. The victim an another unidentified individual who helped the victim to beat up the shooter outside the house according to what I was told. But it didn’t end there. After the shooter was knocked out cold on the ground outside the house the two guys came back to pick him up where they kneed him in his own doorway and took him back inside to kick his ass some more. Now how he mustered the strength to go get the gun is beyond me but he looked as if he was put through a war. Hell he is a vet so his training showed through is shots he took. Self-defense or whatever you call it. It was nuts!
So hours after back on the way home. I stop at three gas stations and the first two were closed. Then the bridge traffic was devastating! Back in the city at 1:15 and everyone was still out on the streets and when I say everyone I mean EVERYONE!!!! The cops were out in force to keep them all in check and back home I was. Ready for bed. Crazy weekend and the first hot one. Summer’s beginning too soon from what it seems.
