Over the past week and a half there have been three shootings, and a major fire that involved five structures. This seems a lot for our community of about 50,000 (including New Kingman and Butler).
First incident happened by the Grace Lutheran Church where I go for choir rehearsal. Apparently a man was holding a woman and her kids hostage. When she escaped he fired a few shots at here before stealing a vehicle and heading to Golden Valley. In Golden Valley he shot and killed a 61 year old woman. He then lead a chase back to Kingman. He finally crashed his car at the corner of Harrison and Airway (where we often drive and is a few miles from where he started shooting in the morning). There he engaged officers in a gun battle and was shot several times. He has since been taken to Las Vegas area hospital. I have never heard of the connection between the man and the woman he murdered.
Next shooting involved a road rage incident up Hualapai. Apparently the followed each other down from the mountain until stopping at Walgreens on the corner of Hualapai, Beale and Stockton Hill. There they confronted each other and one driver pulled a gun and shot the other. He was quickly identified and arrested by police with no incident.
The last shooting involved a man holing up in his house after having poured gasoline in the house. He had an argument with his room mate. Swat was involved. After three hours of negotiation they finally convinced him to come out. However he pointed his gun at police at which point he was shot and later died of his injuries.
Finally this past Tuesday there was a large fire. You could see smoke from our house and they say you could see flames from a couple blocks away. This was the street behind ACE Hardware. It involved four homes (one frame and three mobile) as well as a sand alone garage. Newspaper said no injuries but four families, including seven people, were displaced. There has been no cause of the fire given.
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| fire through the windshield on our way to volleyball party |
