Another Homicide Last Night

At 8:00 pm I received another call last night. Chaplains were called out to the scene of another homicide, another young person killed. Pastor Bains and I responded, then called two other chaplains out. Honestly - we both needed a break from from telling parents about the death of their children.

The Palo Alto Daily News reported on the incident:

As police continued to search for the suspects who shot and killed two East Palo Alto teenagers over the weekend, a young woman was fatally shot while driving in that city Monday evening.

East Palo Alto police Lt. Tom Alipio said that around 7 p.m. Monday, officers responded to a crash at Westminster Avenue and Alberni Street, the same intersection where a 16-year-old boy was fatally shot by police last month.

The officers found an 18-year-old woman behind the wheel of a Honda Accord, who appeared to have been injured in the crash, Alipio said.

However, when medical personnel began to administer first aid to the young woman, they discovered she had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators have not yet determined a motive for the shooting and are still piecing together what happened.

"It does appear that she was shot while driving the vehicle," Alipio said.

In other incident, also reported in the Daily News, a loaded .38 caliber handgun was found at a local school. A eight grade student carried it to school. I heard the sirens when it happened - wondered what was going on.

At this point I'm not even sure how to respond. The community is rightly very concerned and tense. Almost every day there is some sort of meeting with community leaders trying to come up with a solution. Please continue to pray.