“We have a problem here in Stockton,” said nearby neighbor. “We have a lot of violence and no one ever wants to get involved.”

But what will getting involved do exactly? It seems that this particular event today has proved that “getting involved”, even if to stop violence, causes more violence.

KCRA3 referred to the victim that got involved as a “Good Samaritan”, and has reported that he is “expected” to survive. But, why was he put in this position in the first place?

The shooting and stabbing took place at Cortez Park at 10:45am not to far from ParkLane Elementary School. During this time innocent citizens were driving to work and children as well as parents were driving to and making drop offs to school.

I couldn’t help but to wonder, how many children were near this area during the occurrence of this event? Could these children, completely oblivious to the thought of a man carrying a gun and stabbing weapon have been severely injured or worse? However, what is very disappointing is that this individual for a reason that is yet to be determined, wasn’t thinking the same thing.

This area is where children should feel safe, more importantly any citizen living in this area should feel safe. These children were near this incident at the time for nothing more than educational purposes, and unfortunately exposed to something very unexpected; causing them to have a temporary lockdown, and delaying their learning.

It is possible that this could have been my school, or any other school for that matter.

Although I am pleased to hear that the individual has been taken into custody and we can hope to here further details soon. I am saddened by the thought that this or an incident similar to this can happen again, and can be just as unexpected.