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(repost)
That is what the California Highway Patrol officer said.
We were ensconced in an open garage waiting out an armed 211 suspect when those words were spoken.
My call came in at 2:30. A man was barricaded in his apartment after a shootout with police. At the time, I was home sick with a headache the size of the Rock of Gibraltar. But a barricade is a barricade and I threw on some clothes and rushed to the scene.
I stopped at the road closure and was waved through by one of the CHP guys that yelled, “Hey, I know you....go ahead.”
“OK”
After parking the car where the chippy said I should, I asked our esteemed parking enforcement officer (also known as the Parking Nazi) who was standing guard, where was everything happening and where should I go.
He motioned somewhere down the street towards some low-rent apartment complexes and told me to walk on the right side of the street through a vacant lot - nothing but dirt and a creosote bush.
“OK.”
I kept an eye out for what was going on and watched as the guys from the PD’s Special Response Team ( SRT) moved into place.
“Cool,” thought I and grabbed a few shots of one of the guys creeping across the roof, rifle in front of him, pack behind. I thought, “If I get nothing else this will be good art."
I heard people yelling at me and here comes the PIO from the Barstow Police running across the street telling me that hey, I was right in the line of fire and I should like move.
“OK.”
“Don’t go south of the palm tree,” he said, “that way you won’t be in the line of fire.”
“OK. Can I stand behind the palm tree?”
“Sure,” he said, “but I’m not responsible if you get shot.”
“OK”
Seemed to be my thought processes at the time, singular “OK’s”
I stood behind the palm tree for a little bit and then moved — I really wasn’t in the mood to get shot.
The reporter showed up, a radio guy showed up, a small TV station guy showed up and we all sat around in the heat waiting for something to happen....for a long time.
Negotiators were on the phone, relatives got on the phone to try and talk this guy out. The man had been wounded slightly in the first shootout — shot in the hand and the arm — and yelled out to his friends that he was afraid the cops were going to shoot him on sight.
We all knew that this would never happen, but the guy wouldn’t come out. The cops even brought him cigarettes when he asked for them - actually threw them up to him on the balcony. If they had wanted to shoot him, they could have at that time.
I got permission to wander a bit, down in parking area where the CHP rifle shooters were set up — watched them concentrate completely down their black gun sites. I was close enough that if I stuck my head out I could see the guy’s balcony — really, really well — with bloody curtains swaying in the wind.
Time wore on, heat got worse, men got shifted around so as to give the ones sitting in the sun a break.
We waited. Cops gave me Gatorade and water. It was hot.
As dusk set in I kept hoping this guy would come out with his hands up while I still had light to shoot by. Even with my new digital camera (YEA!) I was still a newbie at using the flash in low light situations so I wanted halfway good light.
I simply couldn’t figure out why this guy would NOT come out.
Was it the macho mentality of the whole gang banger personality? Was it that he knew he was facing some major jail time? He was already a loser in that department. What possibly could be worth prolonging this stand-off?
Time wore on some more. The apartment complex residents started getting restless. Hoots and hollers and jungle-like monkey noises came from the apartments and from those watching and waiting behind the lines. A bottle was thrown.
I have to admit, this made a me a tad nervous. I could just see this thing erupting into an all-out riot. Half the people in the complex were convinced the cops were going to gun the guy down and the other half were afraid of the first half.
Soon the cops had enough waiting and started firing tear gas canisters into the apartment. Oh my! Horrible sound those loud guns. Once that tear gas thing started I didn’t stick my head out any more. I crouched down behind a car. I could still see the CHP shooters but wasn’t in the line of fire.
Good thing.
Several minutes after the first rounds of tear gas were volleyed into the apartment there came three quick shots - pop - pop - pop — out the sliding glass door — over the balcony.
“Holy shit,” thought I, “that guy is firing at us.”
“Hey,” I yelled, “Was he shooting this way.”
“Yes, Lara, he was shooting this way.”
I crouched down lower. Just about fully dark now. The people that had come out to watch were yelling the guy was yelling babies were screaming and one Barstow cop remarked, “I can’t believe these people brought their kids out to a gunfight.”
Law enforcement did not return gun fire but more tear gas was used.
Still no sound, no reaction from the barricaded man.
One of the CHP guys came back down into our spot and said that after the three rounds fired by the suspect, one more shot was heard a few minutes later - muffled. Not aimed out the sliding glass door — inside the building.
He said quietly that he had heard _that_ sound before.
Time was starting to lose meaning. Amidst the noise and chaos I had been on the phone relaying the latest developments to the reporter who had gone back to write his story. More tear gas was lobbed into the building but the feeling was that the man had offed himself with that final fourth shot.
My deadline to leave was fast approaching — close to 9 p.m. I had the images from the afternoon’s deployment and some close-ups of the guys close to me. But no resolution. No closure.
The crowd up the street was really starting to turn ugly and I debated going up to photograph that, but figured that a camera flashing would trigger the already riotous behaviour that was growing.
Two guys threw bottles at the sheriff’s SWAT team. Ooooh, not a good idea. Those SWAT-dudes are bad-asses with attitudes and guns. They do NOT take kindly to being pelted with bottles. The bottle-throwers were arrested and the crowd scene cooled after that.
No lights were on in the apartment, no movement was seen and all negotiations had long since broken off. The man’s last words and comments to the negotiator were pretty much that the only way he was going to leave was in a body bag.
I still hoped not, but I left to file my art. Before I left the center of the action, which is where I had been allowed to stay (don’t ask me why, I was just allowed to stay.) I made sure the police chief and one of the LT’s knew I was returning and wanted to be back close to where things were happening.
“Sure.” they said, “Just show your press pass, tell whoever we said it was ok and come on back - stay out of the line of fire.”
“OK”
I left, filed the creeping-across-the-roof pic and one of two officers and a bullet proof shield and came back.
Things were as I left them — no more noise, no more nothing.
About 11 p.m. the sheriff's office took over. The Barstow PD SRT and CHP back-ups had been on duty squinting down their sites for almost 8 hours, it was time for a relief team.
I watched the camouflaged SWATs come in, dash about the courtyard smashing out the remaining lights that would put them in danger and get into place, covering each other with guns pointed toward the apartment as they ran across the courtyard.
I couldn’t help myself, I thought “Jeez, this is just like in the movies.” Only this time it was for real — surrealistic, but real.
When the Barstow guys and CHP left I was still standing there all by my lonesome. One of them yelled back at me, “You probably ought to come out too.”
“OK.”
That seemed like a good idea to me — it was dark and I didn’t like being alone.
I came up out of the garage hole and plopped down on the front of a fire truck. Sheriff’s homicide detectives were wondering who the hell was I and why was I there. I smiled, introduced myself and sat back quietly on the fire engine, hoping that no one would actually notice me. I even put my camera down.
The sheriff’s Captain saw me, smiled and let me stay. I was now considered a “friendly.” Cool.
I had kept in contact with the night editor at our sister paper, even after the Dispatch went to bed, did some interviewing, got the correct on-the-record-quotes that supported the police’s version of what happened and waited — and waited.
For almost an hour after the SO took over a deputy called out over a loud speaker. “Aaron. Come out with your hands up. The building is surrounded.” Every few minutes for almost an hour. Over and over. The same tone of voice. No emotion. It could have been a computerized recording it was so precisely repeated, but it wasn’t.
Aaron didn’t come out.
Talking time was up and the SWAT team started in with more powerful tear gas. Volley after volley. No Aaron. He was either immune to the gas or dead.
Soon the team took out the doors and entered the building using flash-bang devices before going into each room - “auditory and visual distractions” they call them.
Hell honey, those are bombs.
Every time they said over the radio they were setting off another one, all the law enforcement guys, suits, SWAT dudes, everybody around me, put their fingers in their ears. I wish I had photographed that, but it is hard to hold a camera with your fingers in your ears.
Time moved faster, soon after the SWAT guys entered they called for the SO medics that had flown in on a chopper. Word came out fast that it was over, Aaron was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
It was one o’clock in the morning. There was almost a palpable sigh, a slumping of the shoulders when it was over. I had been at the scene for almost ten hours.
It was not a good resolution. Not the one that everyone; law enforcement, medics, firefighters, friends and family had hoped for.
I remembered what the CHP shooter said after word came in about the fourth shot — “We are in a stand-off with a dead man.”
He was right.
•••••••••••••
Rest in Peace Aaron
So I have today off as it is Anzac day but I'm am being completely selfish. Other than taking the cats for a quick morning walk I am keeping them inside while I have the day to myself by sitting at the computer and editing photos and posting photos. (That is me being selfish) Hence why i have already posted 3 photos :)
They are happy to sit inside and i don't feel guilty because if i was at work they would be inside anyway.
Keeping with the selfish theme, I have to tell you I have started to become a little selfish but it's for my own benefit.
Since losing both Bonnie and Squirt I have had to reassess my dependence on my animals.
You all know me and know that my animals come first and that i would do anything for them. Now that hasn't changed but I'm trying to find a balance. My world crumbled and still is crumbling when i lost Bon and Squirt and I felt completely lost without them and I struggled/struggling to find my own identity. It was causing me all sorts of pain and I know I needed help to sort my grief out.
Anyway, long story, short.....I am becoming selfish. Which translates to....I am finding who I am without my animals. I still love them and do everything for them but i am finding a way to be dependent on myself and not wholly on them.
So my lack of photos I post of my critters is kind of on purpose. I'm not walking them as much and not doing probably as much with them because at times I don't feel I want to, so that is me being selfish. Normally I would of taken them walking to make them happy but sometimes all i want is to sit inside and edit photo's.....so now I do that. I put myself first. Which at times is really, really, really hard to do and not a natural thing for me to do.
I know a lot of you follow me for my cat photo's and of late although my stream is still full of cat photos, they are not my cats.
The zoo and me going so often is a new normal for me and a way of me finding myself without being dependent on my critters..... I am sure you all understand this as most of you are animal lovers and I guess you have or do feel they way I have been feeling.
I want to thank you all for following my photos of not only my cats but of my journey through grief....
I am also planning holidays now.....in a month I will be going away for 6 nights....I know...I have NEVER done that before and I have never left them before. They will all stay home and close friends will come and feed them so i am positive they will be ok.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyTB88mAS2E
© All rights reserved Anna Kwa. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission
The Great Blue Heron with a wingspan up to six and a half feet is the largest heron in North America. There is a good chance you will spot one near small bodies of water, in wetlands or on the weedy shores of a lake. During the springtime in Minnesota small farm ponds are another location they inhabit. They hunt by stalking, sometimes standing absolutely still before making a quick thrust with their bill to capture their prey.
sun OFF* flickr 1 tkời dzan :">~ nkưg dzẫn cmt+ fav cko mý t.êo đầy đũ =))*
có dzì call + sms cko sun nká !!!~ ( 0908236271 ) => alô cko sun kái name nká =)*
=> yh* uf pésun : sunkao_crazy_97
Mercury Retrograde comes to an end later today (June 22), and not a moment too soon. Life has simply been more challenging over the past three weeks or so as anything to do with communication has simply faltered. These retrograde periods effect people in different ways, some worse than others. For me it's been a series of misadventures with computer apps inexplicably failing, emails that simply won't send, issues with cell phones and more than my fair share of mechanical failures, back orders and delays. I'm less prone to (although not immune from) the interpersonal misadventures that occasion the retrograde. People tend to become argumentative often as a result of simple misunderstandings. You say one thing but it is interpreted in an entirely different way. And the hallmark of the retrograde is the careless mistake. I think I'm less prone to the latter problems because I take great pains to speak clearly and double check my work during the retrograde phase. These are things I feel I have some control over, unlike the computer and technical issues that seem to lurk behind every corner. Even still, things get by me. One irony of the retrograde is not discovering the mistakes until we exit the retrograde. Many a time I've breathed a premature sigh of relief that I got through it, only to discover something I did wrong days or even weeks later. Certainly things go wrong all the time, not just during retrograde. It's just that things are more prone to breakdown during these periods. And there is often a cascading effect where one minor thing results in something more severe or damaging. People sometimes ask if I seriously believe in this "stuff". Personally I don't believe it's subject to a belief system, but that's just me talking. I lien the retrograde to a curve in the metaphorical road of life. To me it calls for taking one's foot off of the gas for a few weeks to ensure that we don't run off the road. Retrogrades are a wonderful time to reflect, just a poor time to execute. Life begins to get back on the rails tomorrow.
3, 2, 1, lift off. We spotted this Juvenile Red Tailed hawk while driving through Lower Klamath Basin’s auto tour. Immature Red Tails can be readily identified at close range by their yellowish irises. As the bird attains full maturity over the course of 3–4 years, the iris slowly darkens into a reddish-brown hue, which is the adult eye-color. We captured this image just before takeoff. We were so excited to be up close and personal with this beautiful bird of prey.
This big whitetail deer found a hole in the river, and had to clear some waterlogged ears. Be sure to see the next photo in the shake it off series. Have a great weekend!
The temperature hovers at 107 degrees in the depths of the Sacramento River Canyon at Delta. It's almost too hot to handle. The air is still, making the heat feel unbearable. But the approach of a train at the last minute, coupled with some beautiful light, makes it worth staying for a minute. Thankfully, the train approaching was a shorty. UP 5274 leads a short northbound maintenance of way train up the canyon. A quick retreat to an air conditioned car was in order after the train's passing.
Dear all, I will find a moment during the day to visit your photo stream, enjoy the day!
www.flickr.com/groups/everythingaboutzebra/
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The Beloved - "Sweet Harmony"
We saw several Kestrels and a Buzzard on a short walk this morning but mostly too far off to photograph. This one landed on a tree top not too far away - but with it's back towards me - I finally got a couple of shots when it decided to fly off.
(Mis pequeñinas nuevas sdfkjsidjfrd)
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pigeons had a habit of falling into my little pond then sitting on the grass to dry off , I think he has his beady eye on me , but I felt sorry for them falling in so now this year has been emptied out after they found a hedgehog at the bottom of it thought its not a good idea hope you like the photo ?
Cooling Off | Mozambique Visit my website at [www.glenfisher.photography](https://www.glenfisher.photography), read my blog glenfisherdot.live and follow me on Instagram [www.instagram.com/glencfisher/](https://www.instagram.com/glencfisher/)
I stopped to take some pictures but, the only one I really liked at this location was the one I took of my truck. Go figure.
Nếu e bận ..k nghe máy được
Anh sẽ hiểu
Nếu em luôn trễ vào ngày hẹn của 2 đứa mình
Anh sẽ hiểu
Nếu e luôn có mọi lý do để từ chối những điều a thích
Anh sẽ hiểu
NHƯNG nếu anh DỪNG yêu em
Lúc đó ..đến lượt em PHẢI hiểu ... :)
Night off of Columbus Street, San Francisco, California.
For more about this photo, see the Tourist series in my online gallery. Thanks for your interest!