Never A Dull Moment: Bay Ridge Edition

So, Girlfriend and I had finally settled down for the night... the drama from Midtown blowing up had subsided, I'd opened a bottle of wine, and Top Chef was on, soothing us with it's food-based competitions and the refreshing model-sass of Padma Lakshmi. At that moment, all was well.

Then the SWAT Team showed up:

That's the scene outside our building at about 10:30 last night. Apparently, and the details are still sketchy at this point, some kid barricaded himself into his apartment (which was around the corner from us), instigated a stand-off by shooting at the police, and then committed suicide. It was, and I don't mean this to sound like I'm taking the situation lightly, bananas.

More pics:

General Chaos

NOTE: Sadly, we couldn't get a good shot of all the SWAT Trucks. Black vehicles don't show up well when you're not using a flash (didn't want to draw attention to ourselves, lest it inspire the rooftop snipers to decide that we'd make for some good target practice before "the show").

The "Hostage Negotiation Team" Truck

NOTE: It's kind of hard to read, but that's what it says on the side of the truck there.

Ambulance, With Surrounding Crowd

NOTE: This was particularly freaky. Some woman, whom I can only assume knew one of the parties involved, completely lost her shit after it was all over. She was crying, wailing actually, and then she collapsed on the ground and started shaking like a Baptist preacher at a Revival. They had to strap her down to a gurney and take her away.

Anyway, that was our night. An interesting one, to be sure. If nothing else, it brought Girlfriend and I even closer together; you never know how much you really love someone until you, as a couple, witness your first large-scale police action. Incidentally, the whole day really made me feel like a bonafide New Yorker. Exploding streets, hostage situations, chaos and confusion right outside my door... just another day in Paradise.

Good times... good, terrifying, holy-shit-the-world's-ending, times...