Choppers Flying and Sirens Sounding

As my friend Ryan said, "Sirens are nothing new around here, but when you hear a constant stream of police sirens driving by for more than ten minutes and you see four helicopters overhead you get a little freaked out. I thought maybe there was some kind of terrorism thing happening on the subway because I saw a Transit Police vehicle drive by. It turns out that a police officer was shot this morning, the second officer to be shot in twelve hours. I believe there was another officer shot a couple of days ago as well. Sometimes you just have to wonder what the hell is going on."
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So this week has been a little crazy in the neighborhood. I questioned putting some of this in here as I imagine the fears that some of you might have...but I believe truth needs to be spoken so fasten your seatbelts if you're reading outside of Philadelphia.

On Halloween morning a man who was in the midst of robbing a Dunkin Donuts turned around and shot a cop. The cop has since passed and in the past week the suspect has been captured after escaping to Florida. Little was known and then over the weekend I suspected they had a few leads as the choppers were overhead all weekend and sirens were almost round the clock. I grabbed the following off of my friend Ryan's blog...

Not the kind of national press coverage we were hoping for:

PHILADELPHIA — Authorities issued an arrest warrant on Sunday for a suspect in the slaying of a city police officer who interrupted an armed robbery at a doughnut shop.

Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson identified the suspect as 21-year-old John Lewis, also known as Jordan Lewis, and urged anyone who might know his whereabouts to contact police. He also called on Lewis to turn himself in.

"He killed a police officer, he has at least two guns, he is armed and extremely dangerous," Johnson said.

Lewis can be identified by tattoos on his hands that read "N.P." and "H.P." for North Philadelphia and Hunting Park, two city neighborhoods he frequents, Johnson said.

Check out Ryan's blog: http://ninthstreetrecords.blogspot.com/

Turns out this guy lives about 2 blocks from our newest church plant and about 8-10 blocks from our church. It breaks my heart that a 21-year old guy goes to these lengths to find money. This neighborhood and this city, all of us, need Jesus in a way like never before.