Ricketts: Shooting at FWB Recreation Center a little too close for comfort | Opinion
This is a scary time to live in America.
News of gun violence, if not outright mass shootings, drops every day. Luckily, we still live in a pretty safe area. Okaloosa and Walton counties don't have nearly the reports of gun violence that even Escambia County does, but we're definitely not immune to it.
Each year, I take the week of Fourth of July off. I have friends from Indiana who have been coming to visit that week for the past five years.
Our house is just around the corner from the Fort Walton Beach Recreation Center, where on July 7 Sean Yadriel Burgos-Jimenez was shot and killed. The shooting was so close that my friend and his daughter heard the gunshots from our backyard.
Reporting on the incident: Police: 2 teens allegedly shot, killed 18-year-old at FWB Rec Center during armed robbery
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Two teenagers, Brandon Lee Lanieux, of Fort Walton Beach, and Trevor Brown, of Houston, have been arrested and charged with felony murder. The three people knew each other, according to the Fort Walton Beach Police Department, and the shooting was not some random act of violence.
Still, it's scary when something like that happens so close to home or the people you love.
My wife and I were at Destin Commons last weekend after going to a late showing of "Thor: Love and Thunder" (it's great by the way. I definitely recommend it), and as we were leaving a truck drove past us playing its music loud, reached the end of the street and did a U-turn and passed us again. After having a shooting happen so close to our home just days earlier, that was enough to make my wife a little nervous.
As sad and depressing as it is, situations like this will probably get worse. Gun violence in this country certainly isn't getting any better. So far, we've been lucky.
It was less than four years ago that Naval Air Station Pensacola was the site of a mass shooting terrorist attack when an aviation student from Saudi Arabia shot and killed three people and injured eight others.
The next mass shooting could be any time. When it happens, friends and family of victims will ache and never truly get over that pain. Those of us who read about it or see it on the news will say how horrible it is and wonder what could have been done to stop it.
Something's broken and we need to work together on a solution.
Brothers reunited
Before I sign off for the week, I wanted to give a quick update on one of my past columns. I recently wrote about my hound dog, Nick, and the abuse he suffered before he was rescued by Alaqua and my wife and I adopted him.
Past column: Dusty Ricketts: Animals deserve better from humans | Opinion
After the column was published, I was contacted by a couple from Shalimar who had adopted one of Nick's brothers who had shared a kennel run with him for a short time at Alaqua. We emailed back and forth some, and last weekend we met at the Liza Jackson dog park to reunite the two brothers.
Dansby, Nick's brother, is a little darker in color but has similar markings. They definitely look like brothers.
Thankfully, it appears that Dansby was spared a lot of the abuse that Nick received. He has both of his eyes and his adopted mom and dad have not found any BB pellets in his body.
While there wasn't the instant hugs and kisses we were hoping to see, the two boys got along really well and a lot of sniffs and a handful of kisses were shared. It had been four years since the two had seen each other, in dog years that's close to 30 years apart, so I can understand them being a little hesitant around each other.
Hopefully, in time, the two brothers will re-establish that brotherly relationship.
Dusty Ricketts is the content coach for the Northwest Florida Daily News. He can be reached at dricketts@nwfdailynews.com.
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This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Fort Walton Beach Rec Center shooting too close for comfort | Ricketts
