Yesterday, there were 5 police officers shot in Pennsylvania—just minutes away from me.
I don’t remember the exact number, but there’s a statistic that says, “This number of people will experience a mass shooting near them.” I didn’t think I was one of those people because I live in a small town in “Trump country.”
Yesterday afternoon, sirens were going by on the main street in front of our apartment—that’s normal. Then there were more, and more, and more. Sirens were going by for 15 minutes straight. There were police cruisers, a giant SWAT truck, and lots and lots of ambulances. That was NOT normal.
My teen sons started texting with friends who live in the area and learned there had been a shooting just minutes away from us. They said seven police officers had been shot (we later learned it was actually five officers).
Later in the afternoon, a friend of my son’s who works at the nearby hospital told him that the waiting area was packed with police officers and some of them were crying.
Late last night around 10 PM I heard sirens out front again. A lot of them. My son ran outside and spoke to some people who had gathered on the sidewalk. He learned why at least a dozen police cruisers were going by.
They were heading back to the station from the hospital. The officers had their lights flashing and sirens blaring in tribute to three of their fellow officers who had died.
This morning I finally learned more about the shooting from the local news. Pam Bondi said the ATF was heading to Pennsylvania to assist in the investigation. Kash Patel posted his condolences on X.
It’s strange to see the names of people in the Trump administration that I write about daily in reporting about my little town.
The Shooting
A woman on a local farm called police to report someone stalking the property with an AR-15. When police arrived, the man was across the street in a field with the gun, dressed in camouflage. He started shooting at the officers, hitting five of them before one of them shot and killed him.
Yesterday there were reports that the shooter had turned the gun on himself, so not all of the details are clear at this point. Once I learn more of the confirmed details, I’ll add an update to the beginning of this article.
I’m still awaiting more information but local reporting mentioned something about the shooter possibly being in that field because he was waiting for an ex-girlfriend to come out. It wasn’t clear whether they were referring to the woman on the farm who called the police.
Governor Josh Shapiro spoke at a press conference yesterday
It’s shocking to think this happened close to me in such a small, quiet town..
