Murder Suspect at Large in Chapel Hill

Weird news from Chapel Hill/Carrboro... The law is ALL OVER my neighborhood. They're EVERYWHERE. There are TWO police helicopters circling overhead. According to WUNC there's a murder suspect at large in our little community, and the local schools are on "lock down," meaning that the kids and teachers can't leave, parents can't enter or pick their kids up, they have to keep the schools' blinds closed and they can't even answer the phone. (!)

This, I guess it goes without saying, is a very weird occurrence, especially for Chapel Hill and Carrboro...

Dang, sirens all over the place...

I started down my running route and saw two policemen, one apparently wearing a kevlar vest. (!) One of them motioned me back saying "sir, I think you're goin' to want to go back thattaway," thus suggesting that they would prefer it if I stayed back thattaway. And also that they might be particularly interested in the apartment complex through the woods and across the tracks (but only about 100 yards away). So what's this guy look like, I ask? They're not telling us anything on the radio. "Tall black male, no shirt, no shoes, thick dreads," he says. No shirt? No Shoes? WTF? Is this guy like feral or something? Too weird.

Man, those police helicopters are circling and circling right over us!

So I go back home and then I remember that we never did put a padlock on the door of the crawl space under the apartment. Hmmm, I thinks to myself...my slackassedness has irresponsibly provided a possible hiding place for the feral killer. Way to go, dumbass. Obviously I'd better...whoa, man, those helicopters are flying low!...lock it up. It's a big crawl space...more of a crouch space...about 5 foot high...almost a really crappy basement with a dirt floor.

Actually, it'd serve Mr. feral killer right if he went in there. The previous owners were such home improvement morons that they screwed up about fifty jobs around this place, one of them being the installation of the insulation under the floor. (On the other hand, I thought that you didn't have to insulate the floor if you had a crawl space...so what do I know?) The crouch space is a jungle of hanging streamers of insulation...looks almost like Spanish Moss. Really, really itchy pink Spanish Moss.

So I sez to Johnny Quest "I'm going to go check out the crouch space and lock it up."

"O.k.," she says, not looking up from what she is doing, "take the gun."

"I'll just take a baseball bat," I sez.

"Take the gun," she says, looking up from what she is doing.

So I took the gun.

But anyway the feral killer wasn't in the crouch space, and now it's all responsibly locked up, and the helicopters are still circling and the sirens are still whoop-whooping from time to time. On the news there're aerial shots of our neighborhood, and of the woods around Bolin creek where everybody (and I mean everybody) goes mountain biking and running, and where everybody takes their dogs.

Oh--according to the news, this guy killed somebody in Durham, but was sighted here.

So now I'm sitting in my locked up house, and I have to tell you, it's a little weird. I'm not saying that the reaction I'm about to try to explain makes any sense and I'm not saying it doesn't. I'm just going to try to report on it.

I feel kind of like when I was a kid, not quite old enough to be of any use in a crisis. If there was a fire along the railroad tracks or a particularly vicious pack of wild dogs or a big cottonmouth in the watering hole...something like that...you know when you're not quite a kid anymore, but not quite old enough to be more help than worry in a dangerous situation? Man, I hated that time. Well, although I know it's irrational and I know that the police know what they're doing and I know better than to get in the way, but I feel like, you know, this is my community and if there's some evil bastard running around, some threat to it--killing people fer Chrissake--then I should be out there helping out somehow. Not like they need me, and not like I know what I'm doing or anything. I'm just saying that's what I feel like.