Someone I Know

Someone I know killed someone this weekend. He was drunk, got into his car, and hit a police officer who was outside his car directing traffic.

He was more than an acquaintance, but not quite a friend. Someone I never spoke with in high school, but recently spent time with. He is a good friend of a good friend of mine. We’ve made out before.

It is one of those things that you can’t get out of your head. It is obviously horrible that an innocent person died and a family is shattered. But how am I supposed to react, personally knowing the person who killed him. He isn’t a bad person. He didn’t intend to kill someone when he got into his car. But he did get into his car when he shouldn’t have. I’m sure it wasn’t the first time. And this time it had deadly consequences. But he has family and friends, that I know, who are suffering too. And he is sitting in a jail cell, realizing the enormity of his actions and the effect on his future.

He is not a horrible person, but he deserves the punishment he receives. And hopefully the people I care about immensely, who are close to him, realize it could have just as easily been them and think the next the next time they get into the car after having a few.