Gecko, I am so happy to hear you are alright and seemingly doing well with the aftermath. back 1999, I was up writing at 3:30 Am, the time my newspaper is usually delivered. I heard the paper guy toss it and it hit the door. Then a couple of minutes later, I heard someone right in front of my house shoot a .38 revolver 3 times. I was in direct line of the shots and hit the floor. When I got up, I saw my paper guy's car was there and two guys running away to hop in a car and flee. I didn't know if it was gang-related or what so I went to rouse my husband who told me I was crazy and went back to sleep. As I went out to see if he was alright, he actually got up off the street, slipped back behind the wheel and drove away! (Turns out he was in shock).

I was left standing in front of a huge pool of blood waiting for the police. It took some time to convince them there really had been a shooting. They only dispatched a car after someone else saw the paper guy trying to deliver a paper on the next street with blood all over him. oddly enough, as I was out there, I saw about a dozen or more neighbors looking down on the scene and the cops said I was the only one who called. No wonder I had a hard time getting them to believe me.

This story has a happy ending, sort of. The paper guy survived being shot in the head and neck 3 times and is back with his family. he is partially disabled and his assailants were never found. At the time, we had a problem with prostitution in our area and it was determined that the bandits were regular robbers of sex workers. They had a bad night and went for the paper guy hoping to score enough money to buy drugs. The incident was a rallying point for a neighborhood and we managed to push the sex trade out of the area. Now we only hear gunshot on New's years Eve, Cinco de Mayo, and some other holidays.