Parks and Police Officers!

And yet, strange things always happen to us! When we first arrived at the park, we noticed some police had pulled over someone. No big deal, really, everything seemed calm, so we went about our business of playing. After a while, we commented that they'd been there for a while. Again, no real concern since everyone else was enjoying a day at the park. And then it happened.

All of a sudden, my niece's mom yell, "Get the kids, he has a gun!" I look up, I see a police officer pointing a gun at someone in the vehicle. She's panicked and grabs my niece. I yell at my nephew to come here. He ignores me. My daughter comes running to me. My son tries to get my nephew. I yell at him to come to me again. He runs in the opposite direction…towards the gun yielding police officer! I run, grab him and join the others behind the park bench. We don't hear any gunshots, so we proceed to go further down the park, away from the potential shoot out. My niece and nephew are crying and my daughter is pretty shaken up. A woman asks what is wrong, and we tell her to get to safety, there's an officer with a gun.

She smiles. She tells us it is a training session; she saw the officer change into civilian clothes, so she asked. There is no sign. There is nothing that could have led us to believe it was not real.

Once we could breathe again, we did take the opportunity to talk to my nephew about why it's important to listen to us when we call him. The Drama Queen said she felt like she was going to throw up, she was so shaky.

Interesting, isn't it, how a simple hour in the park can turn into a real adventure!