They Shooting....

dope photo by Elizabeth Allen - EMA Photography

I just had to grab my bag and run. It was definitely one of those moments where you hear about a room full of black folks running at the sight of a few others with no questions being asked, except we wasn't in a room. We were outside chilling in the middle of the projects talking about working out. Ironically our talk was put to the test faster than we had anticipated. The sound of "Yo they coming! They coming!" was more than enough motivation to spark that evening sprint. It didn't matter who "they" was, nor did it even matter who was saying it. From the glimpse that I had seen and from the start of brisk movement around me, I knew what this was. Unfortunately this wasn't my first time in this situation. And yes I am grateful for this knowledge, as there was no hesitation in my movements.

Upon hearing the warning screams and glancing over to where they were coming from, I seen the person doing the yelling and I also seen the guys running behind him. I turned back to grab my bag of laundry and proceeded to take off with the rest of my cohorts with each of us scattering off into different directions. I choose to run straight under the building path, across the street, and into building 8. A few others arrived at building 8 from different locations, as the word had quickly spread that "they" were coming". Things died down and I walked over to a "safe zone" where I'd seen others began to regroup. As I mentioned before, this was not my first time and definitely wasn't the first for others who was around me. We kinda joked about it for a lil......that’s how we deal with a lot of our issues. Try and make the best of out the situation.

I got the low-down on what happened and it was the typical case of rival beef. They had seen one guy from my way and chased him back with guns drawn. No one was hurt this time, and this will definitely decrease my in the middle of the projects chilling, but for so many others this was just another 7:30 pm on a Monday night. The story stays the same minus the details. There should be a town hall meeting or something, but then again.......they shooting.