I heard gunfire early this morning, about 2:30 AM. A dozen shots. It sounded like it was coming from around the corner, the 3100 block of Iberville.
I wish I could say it was the first time I’ve ever heard such sounds in the night in our neighborhood. Unfortunately it’s a sound I hear far too often. But this was a little different than the usual. It was so close and so loud that it woke me up.
So I dialed 911 and reported it. I think I’ve only ever called 911 once before in my life. They took the information and said they’d send someone out. They did not request my name or address, for which I was thankful. I just wanted to go back to sleep.
I almost called Gwen, the neighbor we know who lives right in the middle of that block. She’s still in a trailer on the sidewalk; she must surely have been woken up by those shots. Maybe I should have called her. But I went back to sleep instead.
Sorry to hear this. We hear distant shots every night, except for last October when I was walking two houses away from four fired rounds. Scary shit!
Come to think of it, the nightly background music of gunfire is part of my (our) low-frequency stress.
I hear it from time to time in Lakeview too. Especially between 1 -6 am. Mostly I pass it off as neighbors firing at stray animals, especially since I don’t hear of reports on the news of any major crimes.
We have also had some of the migrants working in the neighborhod fired upon drive-by style during the day. That kind of thing bugs me because they are only here doing work other folks won’t do, but I only hear of it second hand and after the fact. And they don’t/won’t talk to the police about it…for whatever reason…which bugs me more. No one should have to work that way and $50 a day isn’t worth getting shot at.
I also get the National guard Hummers buzzing down our alleys every once in a while at night after other cars. At least they seem to be on the job. It isn’t a comfort, but what is these days.
It’s sad that these incidents have become such a normal fabric of our lives that we can sleep after they happen. But if we stayed up all night every time it happened we would be a city of wlaking zombies.
I was surprised to hear of a shooting in Broadmoor yesterday, a block where I know all the residents. As I was thinking about it, I heard 3 shots fired out here in Harahan between 12 and 1 am. Nowhere is safe.
[…] so those were gunshots I heard Thursday morning. I got the direction wrong, though. Here’s the relevant excerpt from the 1st District Crime […]