Crazy night last night, with two shootings going down within minutes of each other.

The first one was handled by one of the cities we dispatch for, so we weren’t calling out our detectives and such, but anytime there’s an incident like this the dispatch center becomes quite active.  It’s not helpful when the reporting party is not answering your questions during the 9-1-1 call, and the shooting victim is trying to leave the scene!  Getting enough officers there to secure the scene, allow emergency medical units to roll in, and then figuring out what happened and whether or not there is a suspect to locate all make for a busy time.

It doesn’t help when ANOTHER shooting happens shortly afterwards!  At least it was at the other end of the county, so that one dispatcher wasn’t having to handle two critical incidents on one channel!

Details are sketchy at this time, but the first incident has the victim with a couple of gunshot wounds being treated.  The second is a bit more head shaking…

Initial reports suggest (and don’t quote me on this since the reality at these scenes tends to be somewhat different from what was originally reported) that someone tried to shoot up a rival gang member’s home.  With a handgun.  Rival came out shooting with a shot gun.  Guess who won?  The shotgun wielder was not the one transported to the hospital.

Hell of a night.  And on a Thursday, too.  2011 is getting off to a real bang up start.