there was a shooting in melbourne this morning (the age, abc, cnn/AP, ny times).
this is a big thing in australia. a big thing in melbourne. the latest seems to be the guy with a gun is a bad guy with a history who was assulting a woman he might have met at a bar or knew. at about 830a she tried to get into a cab to get away from him, 2 people going past saw something was going down & went to assist her. all 3 of them got shot and one of the good samaritans is dead. after the bad guy shot them, he ran. he’s still on the run actually. this is bad. and sad. obviously.
the shooting was in the city. not that far from where i work (about 6 short blocks & 1 long block away). in fact, it happened right on the path of the tram i take (yes, i had to detour).
but most bizarre thing was people’s reactions. it seems the radio was telling people not to come into the city. huh? don’t come to the entire city? can u imagine a shooting in nyc & 1010 wins tells u not to come to the city? shortly after i got to work (about an hour-2 hrs after the shooting occured & i’m sure the guy was probably long gone by then), 2 emails went out telling us to cancel external appointments and not leave the building.
ok, i’m sure these were for legal reasons but please. don’t leave the building? how will we get coffee? what about lunch? and no mention of standing near windows. or mention of the glass doors that people sit next to (especially the receiptionist) that probably aren’t the best spots to be in with a gunman running around. or even reminders to make sure u close the door behind you or not to let people into the building you don’t know. i just found the unplanned ‘stay in ur homes!’ approach to be bizarre & funny.