Tuesday, February 28, 2006
It's Always The Quiet Ones
Not that you will know this but I’ve just started over on this post because in the middle of my first paragraph, someone outside fired a gun. I know the sound of a gun. So I, perhaps stupidly, go to my window to look out and was struck by the realization that NO ONE else was. Dudes, that was a fucking gun shot. You think you might show a little concern or curiosity? I can only think that maybe they all thought it was a car backfiring because they have never shot a gun and do not know that there is a distinct difference between the two sounds.
I’m a little rattled right now because there is no reason for a gun to be going off around here. And.........do I hear sirens? Hold on.
Three hours later:
I was right. It was a gun shot. It was my neighbor who shot the gun. And the police just left so it’s time to tell the story.
I have to start off with a little back story first. About four months ago I got a new neighbor. It was said that he was a Jewish Cantor or whatever the hell they’re called and he was very, extremely quiet. I thought this was great. Finally! A quiet neighbor! I mean this in all depth of the word “quiet”. He made no noise at all except when he would leave or come home and the door would slam behind him. That would be it. I could not hear him walking around, I could not hear him opening cupboards or closet doors or talking or playing music...nothing. I had seen him a few times around and once at the store and he would always avoid eye contact with me but I just chalked that up to his religion.
Anyway, apparently the day that he moved in he had a vocal altercation with another neighbor who lives here, a young guy and a gun was produced. He had it in his hand, open palm, but did not aim it. To me that doesn’t matter. There were kids outside at the time and if he had dropped it or did something really stupid and it went off, someone could have been hurt. Of course I didn’t witness any of this, it was all heresay and the young guy seems to embellish a bit so I thought maybe it was a made up story. The young guy doesn’t like Jews and has made this known to the Jewish guy, along with anyone else who lives here so I thought that maybe he was just making up a story to rally everyone to get the Jewish guy out of here. I did not take the young guy seriously.
Over the course of the four or whatever months, they have had a few more verbal altercations but again, I’ve never been witness to any of it. Then last week I went to the store and saw the Jewish guy in there. We ended up going to the checkout at the same time and at first the Jewish guy got in line behind me, the short line, before, for some reason I can’t understand, he went to the line right next to mine; the longer line. I thought that was kind of odd and I thought, at the time, that maybe he didn’t want me to recognize him or have to make small talk with his neighbor. I can understand that. What stuck out was that I had glanced at his shopping basket and he had a shit load of alcohol in it. Again, I thought that because he was this Jewish Cantor or what the hell ever that maybe he was buying it for after their services. It’s not against their religion to drink. Still, the amount he was buying registered in my mind.
Now we come to today. I get home from work and as soon as I walk in to my apartment I notice a lot of noise coming from the Jewish guy’s place. His apartment is right next to mine; my dining room is just opposite the wall of his dining room, my kitchen is just opposite his kitchen, etc. The reason I know this is because I used to have a really cool neighbor who lived in that unit and we would hang out some times. She and I spent our first hurricane together partially in her apartment before the bowing of the sliding glass doors panicked me too much and I went back to my own apartment where the winds didn’t seem as fierce or threatening. Plus, I needed to console the cats.
But I digress.
So tonight I’m hearing all this banging around...loud banging around. Even for normally loud people this would be considered loud banging around. It was like he was hitting things or throwing things or breaking things. It seemed really out of character for this usually extraordinarily quiet neighbor. I went to my room where I spend a lot of my time because in my room, with the fan on, I can block out a lot of the noises around here; honking, bass blaring, people yelling, etc. I did some things on the computer, watched American Idol and sometimes at commercial break I would get up and go say fix something to eat or bring the dirty dishes back to the kitchen or whatever. Every time I did, I heard all this banging around. Because the guy is normally quiet, I decided not to confront him.
And I’m so fucking glad I didn’t.
I was JUST getting started on writing a post here; was about two paragraphs in to it when BANG!!!!!!!! I even wrote the words, ‘Holy shit! Someone just fired a gun!’ I then clicked “save” and went to my windows to see if I could see anything. I looked around at other apartment buildings because I wanted to know if anyone else had heard it. Not one fucking person in all these buildings around here were looking out their windows, out their doors, on their balconies. Nothing.
So, even though I know damn good and well what the fuck a gun sounds like when it goes off, (hi, I’ve only shot them a lot), I actually started to doubt myself. A little. I was still convinced that what I heard was a gun shot but thought that maybe I DON’T know the difference between a shot fired and a firecracker or something. Of course I do but the fact that NO ONE else seemed concerned or looking around made me think that I was perhaps wrong.....or maybe it was farther off than what I thought. Because I thought it was RIGHT outside.
I will not doubt myself again. Instead I will know that people are apparently not too concerned about fucking gun shots going off in a relatively safe neighborhood.
Then I heard one single “whoop” of a siren. (Hence what I wrote above.) I clicked “save” again, stood up and went back to the windows. Still no one was looking out of theirs. Ok the fuck already? Am I crazy? Am I hearing things? First I hear a gunshot, then I hear a siren and I’m the only one who seems to notice anything going on?
I decided to go downstairs to investigate. Because I was in my pajamas, I had to get dressed. I pulled on some pants and threw a jacket on and was just reaching my door when I heard a shit load of yelling. Now I knew for sure something was going down. I stood at my door for a few seconds listening and looked out the peephole. I was looking in the hallway and stairwell because that is where everything sounded like it was coming from. I saw nothing so I decided to open the door.
My front door opens to a hallway where I can see the Jewish neighbors door directly across from mine. I can also see right on to his balcony. If I want to go downstairs, I MUST pass his doorway and his balcony door, turn and then head down the stairs.
I open the door and the first thing I see is a police officer, bent over on my neighbors balcony. I then saw another police officer come in to view from another balcony, (the balconies are not separated, they are all one long balcony for all the neighbors on that side of the building.) It took my mind a half second to register the whole scene because it was not a scene I was expecting.
The police were yelling at my Jewish neighbor to “GET DOWN ON THE GROUND! GET ON THE GROUND RIGHT NOW!” I looked at the ground of the balcony and there was my Jewish neighbor sprawled on his stomach with a cop on his back. I stood there stunned. I watched them both get over him and slap handcuffs on him. I then heard the Jewish guy saying something about how he didn’t shoot a gun and before I knew it, out of my mouth flew the words, ‘BULLSHIT!’
One cop looked up and saw me and then went back to handling this guy. I stole down the stairs, having to pass by this balcony door. I saw the really noisy downstairs neighbor at their door. The lady only speaks Spanish but the little boy and she were standing there and I assume that she was asking me what was going on. They both looked scared. I told them that the guy had fired a gun. Needless to say, this didn’t really sit well with them.
I walked outside and saw my friend who used to live in that apartment next to me and the young guy. As soon as I saw the young guy I felt bad. I knew that he had been telling the truth about the Jewish guy all along. The “quiet, nice” Jewish guy really did have a gun and he really did threaten people with it.
The police came up to the three of us and asked us if we had witnessed any of it. I told them I had heard it and of course the other two, you will soon learn, were witness to just a bit more than that. So the police separated us until the plain clothed detectives could get there and interview us. Eventually they showed up and I told them my side of the story. Maybe this comes from being an MP or maybe it comes from watching so much CourtTV but I made a POINT of looking at the clock when I heard the gun shot and repeating the time I heard it over and over in my head so I wouldn’t forget. The time was 9:57 pm.
I then told them everything else I did and heard from that point on. They asked me if the Jewish guy had ever threatened anyone before with the gun. I told them that anything I would say about that was heresay and then paused to wait for the response I expected of, “Ok, we don’t take heresay.” But they didn’t say that. They wanted me to tell them everything. So I told them everything I have just told you. All of it. (With the exception of the time I hung out with the former neighbor during the hurricane.)
They then interview the other two and at last we are allowed to talk to each other. The whole damn place is outside or hanging out on their balconies now wondering what the hell is going on or know what’s going on but just watching things.
Oh I forgot to mention, before we were all separated, the first two cops brought the Jewish guy down in handcuffs and out to the street to the cars...the so many police cars that were outside. They sat him on the curb and where I was told to sit after they separated us, I had a clear view of the guy as he sat on the curb in handcuffs.
Anyway, what happened was that apparently the Jewish guy got himself good and drunk tonight and was throwing himself a righteous temper tantrum inside his apartment. This would be all the noise I was hearing. This noise went on for a good hour. I walked in my door at 8:45pm exactly and at 9:57, the gun went off. That entire time he was banging and slamming things around.
Sometime in this hour he went out on his balcony and started screaming, “FAGGOT! HEY FAGGOT!” The young guy who he had problems with before was in his apartment and heard this and knew that the Jewish guy was yelling at him. The young guy is not a “faggot” but he knew the Jewish guy wanted his attention. So the young guy walked out to his balcony and that is when the Jewish guy started yelling at him and pointed the gun at him.
The young guy said to the Jewish guy, “You’re not going to shoot me” even though the gun was pointed right at him, and walked back in to his apartment. Not three seconds after he walked back in, BAM! The Jewish guy fired the gun. No one knows where he was pointing when he fired it and no one found a bullet. The Jewish guy walked back in to his apartment after doing this and it was very quiet in there again. I know this because I was in my main room looking out the windows and suddenly there was no noise coming from his apartment like had been for a good hour before.
About four minutes after the shot was fired, the police arrived, guns drawn, and were working their way up to the main area of the building. Right at this time the Jewish guy walked back out on to his balcony, gun in hand. The police looked up and saw him and started screaming at him to drop the weapon, they had spotlights and flashlights on him, lasers on him, one had a taser ready and it was fucking chaos. The Jewish guy put the gun down and that’s when they came up the stairs to arrest him.
It was a .22 caliber and while to some who don’t know any better, that may seem small but .22 calibers can fuck you up because they bounce around all up in your insides. You could get shot in the arm and that fucking bullet would travel around you, destroying shit before exiting out, say, your leg or something. The police confirmed it had been fired but again could not find a bullet.
The Jewish guy at first tried to say he hadn’t done it. (I heard him say this.) He eventually admitted to shooting it to the cops. They told us this. Then CSI-Miami came out and took photos of the guy’s apartment and the entire stretch of balcony. The cops then “left” and we stood around, talking about the incident over and over and over. The cops were still out on the street..by this time there were only four cop cars. At the beginning there were 8 right out front of our building and then a few more just down the street. Cripes!
While I was sitting on a step to the sidewalk and having my clear view of the Jewish guy, I watched them talking to him and he was yelling and shaking his head and getting all upset. Fuck him! That stupid asshole could have killed someone tonight! There are kids in this building and families and as much as some of the kids drive me fucking nuts some days, I don’t want to see them get hurt!
Eventually they put him in the back of one of the cars and then spent some more time filling out some paperwork. Finally they drove off, one in front, car with Jewish guy in the middle and another one in back.
You would think it was done.
Who knows. Even though he is being charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, there is a real possibility that he could be back here tomorrow, released on his own recognizance or bonded out or whatever. I don’t want that mother fucker back here. But he could be back until it goes to trial. Unless the little bitch does a plea bargain and gets probation only. Then he could be here longer.
Except that tomorrow is the day I pay rent and I’m fucking telling the rental agency EXACTLY what happened tonight. I’m also bringing my former neighbor with me as she was in the young guy’s apartment when it all happened. The thing that is even worse than all that is that the young guy TOLD the rental agency about this Jewish guy and that the Jewish guy threatened him with a gun before and the rental agency called him a liar. Young guy has a lawyer for a father. Add to that the lawsuit they are already going under because they refuse to fix the roof after hurricane Wilma and you have one seriously fucked up situation.
I’m telling them that they need to evict the Jewish guy immediately because he is unsafe and while he may not have pointed a gun at the rest of us, tonight anyway, he is indeed threatening the safety and well being of every single person who lives here. If they don’t fix that, AT LEAST, I’m going to join in that little lawsuit.
There was a funny side to the story though. Some of the other neighbors who live close to young guy apparently smoke weed. Right after the gun was fired, Young Guy could not find his phone to call 911. It was right by the door but when you are nervous, you tend not to see things right in front of your face. See, Young Guy heard footsteps coming up his stairwell after the gun was fired and he thought it was Jewish guy coming to his door. He realized it was just some lady from downstairs so he opened the door and knocked on one of his neighbor’s apartments to ask to use the phone to call the police.
What makes this funny? Those neighbors heard a gun fire, heard feet running up stairs and then heard a knock on the door. They panicked and all of them crammed in to the bathroom and began flushing all their weed down the toilet. That’s fucking hilarious.
So...that was the events around here tonight. The post I was going to write originally will be pushed back to another day because I think gun firing by psychopathic Jewish neighbors beats all.
And before anyone gets all upset, I’m not pointing out that this guy is Jewish because of anything racial or hatred. I’m pointing it out because he’s supposed to be some leader of some sort in his.....not church but whatever. He’s supposed to act a certain way but he’s a fucking drunk ass lunatic who threatens people.
They say it’s always the quiet ones....yah. In this case, that is 100% accurate. The guy was so quiet that for a couple of months there, I didn’t know if he actually lived there. I don’t trust quiet people, never have.....I will trust them even less now. And, another lesson for all out there...I already learned this was a long time ago but you absolutely cannot judge a book by its cover...you cannot think you know someone simply because they have a certain title or hold a certain position in society. Just because someone might be rich or “important” or appear to be a pillar in their community, it isn’t always the case. People like to look down at the homeless or “scary” looking people because they think those are the people who will commit the most crimes or be the most dangerous.
If I had told you yesterday that a Jewish Cantor, (whatever the fuck the word is), is a gun wielding lunatic, you probably wouldn’t have believed me. Believe it because it happened. You are more than welcome to search for the case if you doubt it. Begin your search with the date in the Miami Beach police blotter.
