Chapter 2: The Incident

Flash forward many years; I'm retired from the Army, tried Corporate America again for awhile, and then my many years of bad habits caught up with me.

First it was more surgeries for the spinal injuries from my fun in the Army, then diabetes, then heart disease, then kidney cancer... You know how it is. So, at the time of the "Incident" I am fully retired and on medical disability.

To make a little sense of what happened, I should note that for the last thirty odd years I have carried a gun. I was either a police officer, soldier, or in the 'in-between', just paranoid.

In this enlightened modern time, they finally even legalized the act by allowing rational citizens in some states, (including mine) to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Unlike the old system where you were either refused because you didn't know the right people, or got a permit even though you were a drunk because you were buddies with the sheriff, this law required a background check certified training.

The training included proficiency with the weapon and classroom sessions to clue you in on your legal and moral responsibilities. More than a few applicants found they really weren't interested in carrying a weapon, when they got a realistic view of their responsibilities when using deadly force.

I won't get into a gun control debate here, so I will just relate that in that thirty odd years, not counting my Army fun, I drew a weapon with intent to use it only once, and that was while on duty as a police officer. There were four armed robbery suspects with weapons in a car and somehow I convinced them I could get them all before they could get me. I drew but didn't have to fire.

So, now you know, this old man is moving around among you, armed. On the day of the incident, my wife Heather and I went to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch. We are big fans of various ethnic foods. On this day we were going to our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, located in a neighboring suburb.

A word on the demographics of our area; we live in a first tier suburb of a large northern metropolitan city and have a diverse community, living mostly in harmony. There are of course, racial tensions and spill over from gang violence in the inner city, and also some gang activity in the suburban communities.

Families move from the inner city to the suburbs to escape the gang violence and unfortunately some of it follows them. In addition there are significant immigrant populations, both in the inner city and the suburbs that encounter some racial prejudice and friction with other ethnic minorities. We were aware that there was considerable friction between African American youth and the Vietnamese and Hmong population in the suburb where our favorite Vietnamese restaurant was.

On this day we had just finished a great lunch consisting an appetizer of GOI CUON (Vietnamese fresh Spring Rolls filled with rice vermicelli, BBQ pork, shrimp, mint leaves, and lettuce rolled in rice paper and eaten dipped in a spicy Hoisin sauce topped with peanuts). We followed that with the main course, for me BUN BO XAO (Rice noodles served with sautéed beef on a bed of lettuce, bean sprouts, cucumber, and mint leaves served with NUC MAM or fish sauce) and for Heather a Vietnamese/French favorite, Beef with Fried Potatoes (stir fried slices of beef and thin sliced potato with onion in a tasty sauce with a side of white rice. Of course no Vietnamese meal is complete without a finish of Vietnamese Coffee (espresso dripped slowly into sweetened condensed milk then stirred and poured over a glass of ice). YUM!

After lunch, we stopped and picked up a few things at a nearby Asian Market. The market and the restaurant are located in a modern strip mall and off a major roadway, in a busy retail business area.

As we drove around the building, to get to the exit onto the street, I heard screaming coming from the rear of the mall. I stopped the car short of the corner of the building and hopped out.

I looked around the corner of the building and saw, in the loading area where the dumpsters are, four African American males. They were standing over what appeared to be an Asian woman who was on her back, and what appeared to be a young eight or nine year old Asian girl. One of the males had hold of the young Asian girl and was shaking her by the neck.