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Yesterday was a very somber day around here. The weather was grey and rainy; quite fitting.

I never met Officer Jeffrey Shelton, but he was in Jake’s division right after Jake graduated from the Academy, before the department did some redistricting. Jake did a couple of his training days with Jeff, and I remember a couple of the stories he told me. Like, they went on a call once and Jeff was really familiar with the woman who had made the call….helped her out a lot, she even had his cell phone number. Jake says that Jeff was just a really friendly guy. He was a former Marine and Airman.

Officer Sean Clark was in Jake’s Academy class. He tried for so long to become an officer, and he was so excited that he was finally getting the opportunity. I met him at a dinner we went to last summer. I fully remember sitting there talking to him. He had his little boy, Brayden, with him. He adored his son. And his wife is 6 months pregnant with their second child right now. I can’t even imagine how she’s feeling. And those kids….Brayden’s so little that eventually, he’s not going to have many memories of his father. And this new baby will never know its father. My heart breaks at the thought.

The news keeps saying that Jeff and Sean were shot in the back. They weren’t. Sean was shot in the head; Jeff was shot in the neck. They’ve made one arrest so far; the guy is 25 and has an arrest record going back to age 16. The guy that shot them…..what in the hell was he thinking? Or they, because we’re not sure at this point if there was more than one of them. Anyway, Jeff and Sean weren’t even there for anything to do with this guy. They went out there for a domestic disturbance call, unrelated to this guy.

And the other shooting that Jake got called out to? Four of ’em. All of ’em 20 or younger. The one that did the actual shooting isn’t even 16 yet. What the hell? Is this how people are raising their kids these days?

I just kept thinking all day about how grateful I am that I still have my husband, that Noah still has his daddy. This has shaken up the whole city. The last time an officer was killed, it was another double homicide. But it was over 10 years ago. That’s how good our force is.

I’ll be leaving Noah with a babysitter for the first time, if I can find someone. Jake wants to go to the funerals, and I don’t think it’d be appropriate to take the little guy. They’ll be doing 21 gun salutes, and I think that’d freak him out.

Anyway, I need to go play with my boy. Thank you all for your kind notes yesterday.