Remember the strip mall shot? Well, today the strip mall was a huge crime scene. It’s the first time in my entire life that my daily exercise program was interrupted by the police.
It was too chilly for a walk before 7 this morning and I had about 4 hours of pretty serious work to do – so, I decided to put the walk off until after the work was done.
The work is finished. I am looking out my window drinking coffee. Noticed that the traffic was really strange. Way too many cars coming down my street. And a couple of police cars. I have some flowers to arrange. While I am doing that I get a text:
Shelter in Place
This is a message from the Fairfax County Police Department. F C P D is requesting residents near three five four four South Jefferson Street shelter in place due to police activity in the area.
Well. That’s interesting. But not scary. Not like the infamous BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL that I got in Hawai’i in 2018. That was scary.
Friends on the other side of the building look at the strip mall and they report lots of police cars.
Social media kicks in and soon there were reports of a shooter targeting the strip mall. Or rather cars parked at the strip mall. Equipment kept coming.
In the end, nothing happened. At least nothing happened that was reported.
Seems that it was just a generic drive-by. The police response might have been a little over the top in retrospect. In fairness, part of the excessive police was due to our location which is right on the county line. Each jurisdiction brought its finest to the incident.
I will walk briskly around the strip mall on my walk tomorrow morning.