The "OK, Now It's Getting Scary!!" Story

Scene we experienced on our trip to Philipsburg.

It was an ordinary day.  Pulled up today's island edition of the Daily  Herald  newspaper and started reading about the crash of a Jet Ski in the capital of Philipsburg, Sint Maarten.  Seems a female crew member of one of the four humongous cruise ships in port yesterday lost control of her Jet Ski because of excessive speed and crashed into a pier fracturing her leg and arm.  Lucky, I guess, that was all that happened to her.  As Carol and I were leaving the parking area near The Greenhouse Restaurant yesterday afternoon in Philipsburg, an ambulance, sirens screaming to everyone, zipped across in front of us.  Well, maybe not zipped, since the traffic in that area was quite snarled as usual.  I mentioned to Carol that I wondered if it was someone from one of the cruise ships, since last year a passenger had to be transferred to the hospital because of a heart attack while on the ship. The passenger eventually needed better medical services and had to be taken to another island to obtain the help.  That person, as well as the pilot and accompanying doctor, eventually died in a plane crash off the island of Pinel.  I watched the extensive sea recovery attempts from our villa patio early in the morning after the crash.  Today's online newspaper told the reason for the sirens and flashing lights we saw yesterday.  But, as I read on, I saw the reason for another disturbing event  we witnessed yesterday.  On our journey to Philipsburg from our villa in the hills over Orient Bay, we passed a scary scene in French Quarter, about 10 minutes from our departure.  On the right of the narrow road stood a large blue police vehicle parked as best it could on the edge of the road, up on the pavement.  As we got closer we saw four Gendarmes (French police) with automatic weapons pointing them at who-knows-what.  These young policemen looked scared half to death with the situation.  The streets were lined on both sides, near the house where they were parked, with people pointing, talking and in one case yelling at them.  I had the notion to ask my wife to grab my camera and start snapping photos of the event.  My camera was set to record frame after frame as long as you held the shutter release down.  Then it occurred to me that it probably wouldn't be a good idea, so we drove slowly past the site as just witnesses to the event.  

As we passed we saw a small red car that was riddled with bullet holes, some as large as a baseball.  "I wonder if this is the place where the two people were shot yesterday?" I asked Carol as we passed.  Late evening, two days ago, a young woman was shot when a gun was fired through a bedroom window of a home in the French Quarter.  Allegedly the gunshot was meant for her boyfriend.  The woman had to be evacuated to either Guadeloupe or Martinique for additional medical treatment.  Then, several hours later, in the early morning of the next day, it was stated that friends or family of the injured woman took revenge on the original shooter by shooting him in the leg and setting fire to his truck.  The shooting of the car that we saw is said to also be related to the other two previous shootings and possibly related to a dispute between individuals or a gang and may be all tied to drugs.  I guess we were lucky to have gotten a late start on our trip to Philipsburg or we may have been in the line of fire.  Almost like living in the wild, wild West years and years ago.  May have to take the long way to Philipsburg the next time.  It was an extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - photos are from the Herald website.