Mariposa and Solano

(Originally posted on Aug 19)

I started this more than a week ago but never finished it until this morning. Anyways, here it is...
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The corner of Mariposa and Solano in Vallejo is a place I'm very familiar with. It's where the Burger King I slaved at in high school is located. Or as we used to call it, Love Connection due to several hook-ups that happened there when I was there. Hey, when you're slaving for minimum wage, you gotta find something positive about it. And there's nothing better than making out in a walk-in freezer right next to the frozen fries and burger patties while the cashiers call out orders that no one's making. The good ol days...

Anyways, a couple of weeks ago, while coming back from Home Depot, we were on the corner of Mariposa and Solano when we saw five police cars and a SWAT team armored vehicle heading east on Solano Ave towards Springs Rd. Their lights were on, but their sirens were off, meaning they do not want to reveal that they are approaching. After I made the right turn towards Springs Rd, my niece couldn't hide her excitement that we were following the storm troopers. Of course my first tought was that somebody finally turned-in our "neighborhood pharmacist" but after going over the freeway overpass, we saw the cop cars and the SWAT tank stopped at a house behind a used car dealer lot. The SWAT guy who's upper body sticking out on top of the armored car, pointing a machine gun onto the house looked a lot cooler than the fat asses with their hand gun drawn.

Of course I didn't want to rubber-neck so I just drove by and went home. Home was just two blocks away from it all. As we unload our stuff we bought at Home Depot, we noticed the chopper circling above us. It was pretty bright outside, so there was no need for a spotlight. Anyways, I walked back to the main street and watched cars scramble their way around the scene as the cops blocked Springs Rd, a fairly busy street.

My niece keeps saying that we should walk to Burger King to get food so we can see the action. The idea of maybe running to the scene with my camera take pictures and maybe sell the pics to the local newpaper and get credit for it, came to mind. Since lately I've been obsessing about photography and a digital SLR camera that I can't afford, it would be cool to be credited for a local news. Of course the better part of me reminded me that the headline could easily be something like: "Idiot amateur photographer shot by stray bullet." That should win me a Darwin Award instead of photojournalist award. So I passed on the chance of being a local Peter Parker and just went home to catch ESPN.

Fast forward a couple of days.

My niece, my brother and I were coming back from Sacramento. And after taking the Solano exit from westbound I-80, we found ourselves on the off ramp heading toward Mariposa and Solano. As we approach the intersection, I noticed the lights was green. I told my niece: "Hey, no SWATs this time.".... (lots ofstuff deleted)

(NOTE: I'm removing the rest of this since I got a subpoena from the DA regarding what happened. I didn't get a gag order or anything, but I might have to testify in court as a witness. I don't know if anyone died in the accident, but its now a criminal case).