Last week I witnessed a hostile incident that both served as a violent status, but also for me: rebooted some perspective in me the night it happened. Just a few minutes after the 6:00 PM fellowship AA meeting had ended on Front Street, I was socializing with a small group of people from the meeting in the parking lot outside the building. Suddenly; from out of nowhere, a young white man; maybe 21; is being chased in circles around the small cramped parking lot by two teenage African Americans boys; both looking around 16 or 17. The exchange of angry words between the two parties are being spit out so quickly, Im unable to understand what the confrontation is all about. The only thing I could make out is that someone from the two rivals mentions calling the police. The chased man gets chased out of the parking lot by the two pursuers. As a matter of a fact; the chase briefly stops right in the middle of traffic on Front Street, where it looks like a fight is going to break out right there! Im silently preying for some type of intervention because its a no brainier that many additional innocent people in cars could easily be put in harms way. Then as quickly as the near fight in the middle of street occurs, the chase starts up again heading for into the Metro Center. It is at this point that I see two First Alarm security guards at the bus station walking with flashlights. I can see several seconds into the future at this point, because the two security guards are right in the direct line of path that the chase is taking. Sure enough; from a distance, I watched the chasers nearly crash right into the arms of the guards where they are quickly put to the ground in handcuffs! By the time I get across the street to get a closer look, both the attackers and the victim are in handcuffs. Its actually the victim that seems to now be causing the most problems at the moment because he is periodically standing up from the bench and throwing insults and names toward the other two. By this time, a slew of patrol cars have arrived and one of the officers is shouting to that man to sit down. The biggest surprise for me comes 15 minutes later when the chasers are released, and the chased ends up in the back of the patrol car. It made little sense to me; until the whole story unfolded for me a half hour later. It turns out that the 21 one year old earlier had tried to rob someone at an ATM machine down the street. The man was holding his skateboard. He approached a man who had just received his money from the machine. The 21 year old then demanded his money from him and threatened to hit him with his skateboard if he did not cooperate. When the man at the machine would not hand over his money, the 21 year old smashed his skateboard on the guys head! It was at this point; the two teenage kids just happened to be passing by and witnessed the whole attack. When they confronted the mugger, the mugger ran away where the chase then began. The parking lot in front of the meeting just happened to be along the path that the chase took place on. Shortly after this whole ordeal took place, an ambulance and fire truck arrived on another section of the bus station. It turns out that they were there to tend to the victim who had been attacked. I would later learn that the victim had endured a concussion to the head but was in stable condition at the hospital. While I thought it was absolutely beautiful how well justice worked so quickly in this case, it reminded me also that things are not always as they seem and that I should not be so quick to assess and conclude situations I might see. Some of my friends and I had presumed the teenagers were the guilty ones obviously because they were the ones doing the chasing, they must be the bad people. Then it turns out the those two were actually heroes! One of the officers did thank them for their service and also some bystanders. It left me with a sense of proudness to know there are good Samaritons out there; and especially at such a young age.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 21:24:31 +0000
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