Gunfire at the residential apartment community corral

Welcome to the month I’ve been waiting for…forever.  This is the month where I finally complete my Bachelor’s degree.  I have two more weeks of class and then I am done.  I can’t tell you how happy this makes me.  When I look at NOVEMBER on the calendar, I get to see the 15^th marked off as MY LAST DAY OF CLASS!  Oh sweet November.

Class last night was fine.  I actually enjoy class time with my classmates.  We all have our foibles and odd personality traits and yet because we spend every Thursday night together and my fondness for these people knows no limits.  I will miss them.  I will NOT miss class itself or the class work.

I got home last night and was able to pack for my girls’ weekend away AND watch Grey’s Anatomy before putting myself to bed at 11pm. (We got out of class about an hour early.)  Around 2 am I was roused from a deep sleep (oh sweet mistress…where have you been) by what I first thought was my alarm.  After trying to shut it off a couple of times, I wakened a bit more and realized that the noise that woke me was actually loud screaming/shouting coming from our parking lot.  Instead of checking things out, I just shut the window and went back to sleep. A few minutes later, a loud crack jolted me out of bed.  Bob woke up and I said, “What should I do?”  (Obviously I was still somewhat asleep.)  Bob and I both got up and looked out the window.  The first thing we saw was a large, fancy, stretch limousine with its lights on and about 3 or 4 police cars.  Then we saw 4 large men on the ground being searched and cuffed by cops.  At this point people were coming out of the building to check things out but a police officer yelled at them to get back inside as shots had been fired and a suspect was still at large.  It looked like the men were then questioned while the police searched our parking lot.  The police officers were all carrying what looked to be large automatic assault rifles and were combing our lot and courtyard. 

Eventually the lot was cleared and everything quieted down.  However, this morning when I left for work, there was a squad car parked in the entrance of our lot and it looked to be on surveillance.  Still, I have questions.  Why was there a limo in our parking lot and what did it have to do with the events that unfolded?  Who fired the shot? Is a suspect still at large and are we in danger?  Who were those 4 guys and were they let go as it appeared to us last night?  Why is there a police car and police man monitoring our parking lot this morning? I was so curious that I emailed several news sources here in the Twin Cities and eventually a reporter from the Star Tribune emailed me back: “Hi, Thanks for your note.  I checked with the cops in your area who said no one was hurt. A guy was charged for firing a shot in the air, which came after an argument in the Limo. Cops found the guy in your apt. blg. Cops also tagged another guy for lying to them. The guys were returning from a bachelor party when the argument ensued. Jim Adams” So that’s the story of how my first night of sleep in a week was interrupted by gunfire and why I am barely able to function this morning.

I am leaving work in a little less than an hour and am traversing to north central MN for a girls’ weekend away.  I have packed some crocheting, a book, my homework and laptop, and some DVDs. Oh, and my camera.  I am hoping for a nice hike but I will have to be careful because it’s deer opener this weekend.