Thursday 21 March 2013

excitement and GUNS

This is where it happened.

About half an hour ago I decided I really wanted this specific type of canned chili that's on sale at the grocery store near our house, but didn't want to go alone. Ryan agreed to come with me, but only if we walked the dog down there. That way we would all get some exercise, and I get my darn chili. Get two birds stoned at once

So to get to this particular grocery store we have to cut through a gas station parking lot. It's right on the corner of a (pretty busy) intersection as gas stations are wont to be. We had just gotten to the other side of the parking lot and hit the crosswalk button at the intersection when a very expensive looking white SUV came screeching around a roundabout, cut across oncoming traffic (nearly hitting multiple cars) and then just gunned it through the parking lot at breakneck speeds.

Ryan and I are total bad driver commentators at heart so as we were doing our "WHOA WHAT IS HE DOING OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL HE COULD HURT SOMEBODY" thing, another black SUV with tinted windows came flying by us the same way. The driver of the initial white SUV slammed on its brakes in the parking lot, and then so did the driver of the black one.

"They're gonna fight!" Ryan said. 

Our crossing light had changed and we had the go-ahead but we were both kind of staring gape-mouthed at the scene happening behind us. I had my eye on the driver of the black SUV because it seemed like he had been chasing the other guy. He got out of his vehicle very aggressively and as I watched, he pulled out a fucking gun and pointed it at the other guy. 

Ryan and I both said something along the lines of  "He's got a gun let's get out of here." and we crossed the street. I remember thinking we shouldn't run because I didn't want to attract any attention onto us at all. 

We heard "Stop or I'll shoot!" as we got to the other side of the street, so we turned and looked back. Oh the relief I felt when I realized it was a cop and I wasn't about to witness a cold-blooded murder. By then three other police cars had shown up, blocking all the exits to the parking lot. 

So from what we can gather, the guys being arrested had clearly been caught in some kind of undercover drug sting operation and caused a real life car chase that I witnessed the end to! I mean, wow. We left soon after that. I hate being a looky-loo and I also never ever want to give a scary drug dealer any reason to remember my face.

So we went to the grocery store, adrenaline pumping, patting ourselves on the back for both first having the impulse to get away, not to gawk. Ryan waited outside the grocery store with Tank while I got my stupid chili that almost got us killed. (jk) I had a very strong urge to tell the cashier about what we just saw but I could tell by her world-weary expression she wouldn't care, and I couldn't really do it justice in a quick cashier-time-appropriate story. So I said nothing.

We had to walk the same way to get home and they were still there. There were four or five unmarked police vehicles, as well as two vans that sounded like they were full to the brim with angry police dogs. The criminals were lying on the ground, handcuffed, and there were police in uniform, police in bullet-proof vests and undercover police wearing torn jeans and dirty hoodies milling around, taking statements from witnesses or talking to each other. 

As we walked past at a respectful distance, one of the cops roughly grabbed one of the perps (lol I just really wanted to say perps) and he started totally resisting arrest, trying to fight the cop. The whole thing felt like it was straight out of a movie. I wish we could have just stood there and watched for a bit because they had just popped the trunk of the white SUV and who knows what was in there.  But like I said, I don't want to give scary drug dealers any reason to remember my face. Or look at me at all. Especially when things like this are happening on my mother effing bus. Guh. We left quickly because the police dogs started going nuts at the smell of Tank and it was making a bit of a scene.

As far as I know, in Canada police do not pull their guns very often so in hindsight it was pretty cool to be able to see. And another thing, sometimes I wonder if it really can just be coincidence that I insisted that I didn't want to go by myself the two and a half blocks to the grocery store. I would have been much more afraid if I had been alone.

So that's the story of the first time in my life I saw a gun being pulled on someone.