I used to live a five minute walk from here. My kids daycare was a block away. I have filled up my car at this station many times:
Redmond Police officers shot and killed a man outside a busy Safeway gas station in Kirkland Thursday evening.
The shooting happened just before 5:00 p.m. outside the Kingsgate station near 124th Ave. NE and NE 144th St.
According to police, the officers recognized the man, who they say was considered armed and dangerous.
Not only can it happen here, it can happen almost anywhere.
In about 1976 a brother and sister in the really nice part of Santa Monica, California were murdered by a home invader robber. The blinkered residents of that neighborhood awakened to the fact that it can happen to them and not just low-class people from the OTHER side of the tracks, so all sorts of organizations were formed and security patrols formed and hired.
The real problem is that thugs know how to drive.
As an old advert for driving school said, “we taught a horse to drive — humans are easy!” As gangsters and thugs are somewhere in between, they likely also know how to drive, so while they may not know where “out of town” is when the man is after them, they can cruise around and find likely marks. So, yes, it can happen here.
Another example:
Near thirty years ago, a roommate was having a custody dispute with his ex. He was doing all the court ordered parenting classes, etc, and she was doing nothing. Her lawyer told her the guy would win. She figured if he was dead, she would automatically get custody (she was correct). She hired three guys to kill him. Fortunately, she was a loony-tune, and had a falling out with them. They dropped a dime on her, so the cops informed him of the situation, and set up a sting to see if she would do it again. She did, and got nabbed for it. All it cost her was a few months in the county jail.
BTW, they told him there was nothing they could do to protect him while they were trying to nail her on the charge. They did point out that he was a gun owner, and that he should take whatever precautions he felt were appropriate. He packed a 1911 in a shoulder rig for a few weeks until they jailed her. Sans permit, since they are not generally available in the SF Bay Area, even for people with documented death threats. So did I, as a mistake in identity is not uncommon in such situations. That’s when I started to carry around the house, also.