One day last year, I was leaving for work when my sister informed me that a guy we both knew who was a cop (he was one of her former students and one of my classmates) was shot and killed in the line of duty. It was a standoff gone bad.
I had not had much contact with him since we were at high school which was over 10 years ago. He was a different class than me, but the type of school it was, we all were in the same classroom. We used to end up at school later than most of the other kids because his mom and my sister were faculty members. I remember playing soccer with him and attempting to play catch out in the school parking lot with him.
The part that is weird to me, when I found out he was killed--before I knew any of the details-- a picture flashed through my mind of him lying/sitting on the ground in his police uniform & flak vest. A lot of blood on his face and throat, and he was trying to gasp for air. (it's so painful to think of him that way.)
The details came in later in the day. He was wearing his flack vest, but he was shot in the throat. The man that killed him had a shotgun and he fired it at close range.
Why did I see what I did? Why did I have to see that moment? I don't know if there's a real answer to that. Or why this happens to me so sporadically.
When I was a kid, I could almost always tell who was going to be on the phone when it rang, or what someone was going to ask me before they asked, but this. I'm not sure what to think. Is this a gift that's trying to resurface for some reason.
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