Sadness today....

On my way to work, I was waiting for the light to change to green. Suddenly, a motorcycle officer weaved through the cars and halted the cross traffic, waved those in the left turn lane going my way to proceed and then 4-5 police cruisers sped through the intersection. We all looked in the southerly direction they had gone but was not able to discern anything. The light turned green and we moved on. One hour later as I was getting some papers from the cashiers cage, someone turned up the television for a special report. There was a police shootout in progress at the Wal-mart that happens to be 3 miles south of where the police passed by me. On the same road they had turned onto. A van that had been parked in the lot with the motor running all night had been approached by an officer, who had backup nearby. As he moved to the side of the van, someone inside opened fire on the officer who was still in front of the van. Both officers were hit, but the one on the side was able to return fire. He is in critical condition at this time, but will pull through. The other officer was not so fortunate. He died. A 20 year veteran and the first African-American hired by the local police force. We lost a good man today. After a 7 hour standoff, the swat team fired tear gas inside the van but all they found was a dead suspect. Later I read about a man and woman that had parked their motorhome in the parking lot (Walmart allows that) and they heard noises during the night. The husband left around 7am to play golf and the wife said someone again was messing with the door handle. When she hollered at them, the left. They had seen the van when they had arrived the night before, but it was gone later that morning, yet it had returned. The medical examiner has not released the cause of death of the suspect, either he was hit by police gunfire or succumbed to the heat. Either way, we will most likely never know why this officer and family man died. God chooses when to take his children to heaven at his whim and it is not for us to understand, just to have faith that it is for a good reason. I will pray for the officers and their families.