The patio at Bragg's Beach

Last night sitting on the patio at Bragg's Beach with Simon and Ken enjoying the beautiful evening drinking water, yes water, all of a sudden there were 3 or 4 gunshots, a car speeding and 2 or 3 more gunshots. We looked at each other, horrified. Ken said, yes those were gun shots, not a car backfiring. It happened on Taylor Road, which is one house away from my back yard. I could see a blur of a car through the fence, but couldn't make out what it was. I picked up the cell phone, dialed the Riverdale Park Police and told them what I heard. Within minutes the cars and lights were flashing. Police cars blocked Ravenswood/Sheridan/Taylor and East West Highway. My neighbor told me he heard it was a car jacking on his scanner. I called my ward 2 representative. She called back and told me it was a drive by shooting with cars. No one was hurt. I am shocked and appalled that this is happening in my neighborhood. This has never happened in the 35 years I have lived here. We have children living on these blocks who could have been out playing since it was not quite dark yet. We talked about getting a neighborhood watch program going again. Maybe that would be a good thing. We must take an interest in our community and keep these things from happening. It takes all of us. Not just the police. We need to be aware and alert. I know Chief Parker told us that we should call when we see anything suspicious and I think we should heed his advice. He doesn't mind checking it out, so don't worry that you may look silly. Better to be safe than sorry. I urge all my Riverdale Park neighbors to take an interest in this and work with our police department and help them make our town safe. The more busybodys we have watching, the criminals will feel less comfortable coming here. If you weren't for gun control before, you would be after experiencing this incident.