Colorado Shooting, Victims and Families Need Prayers

Some good news? Everything happens for a reason.

Hey folks,

Lets leave politics and agendas aside for now and concentrate on the Victims and the Families. They really do need our Prayers and well wishes. I did find this. Some good news? Everything happens for a reason. Remember all those stories from people that woke up on the morning of 9-11, and for whatever reason, they did not go to work. They are still with us, while so many others lost their lives. 

Here is a similar story of a couple in Colorado.

Hours earlier, the 22-year-old Aurora resident and her husband planned to catch the midnight premiere of newest Batman movie at the Century 16 theater at the Aurora Town Center. But they couldn't find someone to watch their children on short notice.

"We were getting ready to go, but we couldn't find a babysitter," White told Yahoo News Friday morning. "If we went to the theater, we might be dead. I even got mad at my husband that we couldn't find a babysitter. But I thank God that we're here today to give my daughters hugs and kisses."

You see folks, sometimes what we see as bad, is actually good. We may not know it at the time. But look at this situation.

The shock of having narrowly avoided the mass shooting that claimed 12 lives and left 59 people injured was compounded this morning, when White discovered the suspect lived on her block.

She woke at 6:30 a.m. to find portions of her street--the 1600 and 1700 north blocks of Paris Street--cordoned off by crime scene tape, police cruisers, and fire trucks. Some of her neighbors had been evacuated; so far, her building had not been. White's home is cattycorner to the apartment building where Aurora authorities say the suspect in the shootings, 24-year-old James Holmes, lives.

"I do not feel safe, to be honest," White, whose daughters are 2 years old and 3 months old, said. "That's scary to wake up to something like this."

White, along with about 20 neighbors, watched Friday morning as Aurora firefighters smashed open a third-story window in the apartment building at 1690 N. Paris St.

There is another lesson to be learned here. Get to know your neighbors.

Few neighbors say they knew Holmes, who attended a Ph.D program in neurological sciences at the University of Colorado's medical campus, just a few blocks away.

"I didn't know him, couldn't even tell you if I saw him," said Antoinette Marshall, a neighbor who had attended a small party at the suspect's apartment building the evening of the shooting.

But Tayvon Lewis, who lives across the street from White, said he had seen Holmes on occasion.

"He was a quiet dude," Lewis said. "I have seen him early in the morning with his backpack on like he was going to school or work." Lewis said he usually saw Holmes about three times a week, but only saw him once in the last month.

Lewis described the immediate neighborhood as an "active block." He said Friday's scene--with neighbors milling about, visiting with each other on front steps--is a normal day. That everyone is always out in the open worries him in the wake of the public shooting: "It's a shame. I feel scared."

Another next-door neighbor, Hannah, 30, who didn't want to give her last name, said she saw police cars when she left for work at 3:30 a.m. She didn't think twice about it. "There were police in the parking lot, but no crime scene tape. I heard about it on the radio going to work. I didn't connect the two. They had a K9 unit out, but I was able to walk through (an empty lot next to the building)."

"The neighborhood's OK. It's not the best," she said. "I would suspect something more like a drug shooting [here]. If you look at Virginia Tech and Columbine, you don't expect it to happen next to you. But the scary thing is it could."

Added Phil, 46, a neighbor who didn't want to give his last name: "If it didn't happen here, it would have happened somewhere else. You never know what your neighbors do but what they show you."

I grew up in Small Town America. Where I live now, here in Sunny Florida, I KNOW my neighbors. I know their story. I know who they are. I know what they are about. I look out for them, they look out for me. If I do not go to work for more than a day or two, my neighbors are picking up the phone to see if I'm OK. We watch each other's homes when we go out of town. We have Dinner get togethers, when the Snow Birds are in town.Growing up, the entire town knew each other. We knew if something happened on the other side of town before the Sun set.

These people that lived next to Jim Holmes knew nothing about him. If they did, perhaps they could have seen the warning signs. There are nearly ALWAYS warning signs. But this guy lived right next door to these people and one guy saw him one time in the last month. There truly is something to be said for community.

71 people shot. 59 injured and 12 dead. All they did was go, over pay, to see a movie. That's it. They had no idea that waiting for the movie to start was the last 20 minutes of their lives. These are those we need to concentrate on. God Speed to those that lost their lives. May God be with those that were wounded, and help them heal. May the families have the peace and comfort they need in this time.

This is NOT about Gun Control. This is NOT about the Tea Party. This is NOT about Conservatism verse Liberalism. This is NOT about Politics and Agendas. This is about Good and Evil. This is about Community. This is about us coming together as one people, to support those in need. Can we, pretty please, take at lease a day or so to do that?
Peter

Sources:
The Lookout - Colorado shooting suspect’s neighbors: one was going to movie but bailed

By Timothy Skillern| The Lookout – 2 hrs 26 mins