I started the day yesterday watching local television coverage of President Bush flying into Omaha. Air Force One touched down about 9:00 AM (Central). I listened to his brief speech and then he moved on to a health center about ten blocks from my home. From there he moved on to a fundraiser. He was back in the air headed for the White House by 1:00 PM.
I thought that the national press corp would file their stories and go home. Around 2:30 PM, a friend called me. He's a police officer at the airport. He told me that a shooting had taken place at the Westroads Mall. I was just at that mall last week. I met several people for lunch there that day. Anyway, I turned the television back on and saw that Omaha was in the national news for all the wrong reasons. A 2o year-old troubled male had opened fire on people at random in the Von Maur store.
I was glued to the television for the next several hours. Reports varied throughout the day about how many were injured or deceased. Eventually, city officials held a press conference and confirmed that nine people had been killed (including the gunman) and five more were injured.
I'm not naive enough to think that "it couldn't happen here." That thought never ran through my mind. Instead I thought about all the families who were going to receive a phone call letting them know that their loved one had been shot. And I thought about the heartache that many of those families would experience when they learned that their loved one was gone.
The city of Omaha is in mourning right now. Pray for us.
