Yesterday started off with a jolt.
I spend a lot of time in my take-home police vehicle, for
which I am very thankful. The radio
squawks all day long. I don’t typically
need to use it, unless I am going to see someone I don’t know well. I then check in with the dispatchers
notifying them of my location, so someone looks for me in case I don’t check
back out.
Some of what you hear can be shocking. I frequently view this as an opportunity to pray.
Yesterday morning, the radio traffic was nothing less than
life or death. A pursuit started not too
long after 8 a.m. with a driver who doing 76 in a 45 mph zone and would not
pull over. Soon he was clocked at 106
mph with several troopers trying to catch up.
He purposely rammed one trooper twice. The second time he
rammed into the trooper, the driver lost control of his car, drove it into a
tree. The car looks as if split in half
on impact. The next thing I heard was a
trooper saying that the car was engulfed in flames. The driver died,
obviously. I’m not stating anything that
hasn’t been on the news.
One minute I was praying for the safety of the troopers
and the next, I was praying for the driver’s family. What has gotten into people? What on earth was so important that he drove 30
mph over the speed limit to begin with? What could the
driver have done which was so terrible that he couldn’t just pull over to deal
with it? Some warrants? A stolen car?
Now his body will have to be identified with dental
records. I was shaken. I can’t imagine
how was for the troopers who were there.
It started snowing at 2:30 and by 3:15, it wasn’t safe to
drive. We don’t use snow tires here in southeastern Virginia. I drove home, did some
paperwork and started dinner. I tried a new
recipe for Genovese pasta I saw in the NY Times magazine on Sunday. It was fabulous. http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017238-pasta-alla-genovese
We walked in the snow after dinner. We bundled up with hats, scarves, gloves and boots and put Lulu into her little orange coat.
All the city
sounds were mostly muffled, with most people wisely inside and not
driving. It was so quiet that we could
hear individual snowflakes hitting the snow already on the ground. Peace washed over me as I finally let go of
the tension from the morning.
We headed down to the partially-frozen Scotts Creek. It is the prettiest spot in any season, with
all kinds of wildlife; foxes, green herons, egrets, and Cooper’s Hawks. The Creek didn’t disappoint tonight. My pinkies were getting numb as we stamped
our feet up the porch stairs and went inside.
My world is all peace tonight and another family’s world
has fallen apart, as they surely must know by now that someone made a terrible
decision. And I pray that the God of all
comfort will sustain the troopers and the family members this
driver left behind.
