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Yesterday, officers caught an escaped prisoner who kicked a door down at the infant room at the kids’ preschool and held a gun to the head of one of their teachers (she’s a gal who took care of Dylan when he was an infant and a toddler, who came to his first birthday celebration and who has also babysat for us).

It was one of those heart-stopping phone call days….Generally speaking, a call from the preschool is negative news–they’re calling because the kid has a fever or has been injured, needs to be picked up, etc.–but one prefaced with “there’s been an incident” (me: “an incident…?” Heart starts pounding, mind starts racing…how badly is Dylan hurt? It was his teacher on the phone…Could it be Cameron??) followed by, “Yeah. There was an armed intruder in the infant room…” (uh, did I just hear her say “armed intruder??”) is pretty terrifying.

Was so glad I was working from home and I could get to the kids within 15 minutes. Of course, it would have been only 5 if there weren’t cops blocking off all roads to the school.

I am so very grateful he didn’t hurt anyone, grateful that this nutcase was just sane enough not to open fire—gladder still that Cameron was downstairs, away from the immediate vicinity, and that Dylan was in the preschool room next door.

The teachers were heroic and did a great job of keeping the kids calm, despite the fact that Dylan told me they were shouting “Emergency!” and commanding everyone to lay down. I feel even more confident of their care now! These ladies were so incredibly calm and capable and I’m still in awe as to how they kept their wits about them!

I arrived to get the kids just before the preschool was evacuated to a building at the hospital. We had to be escorted from the school by officers sporting big rifles who made sure everything was clear before allowing us to walk to our car. At the nearby elementary school (where Taliana was), kids spent half their day hunkered down on the floor, away from windows with blinds closed, doing homework and crafts. Helicopters were hovering over our neighborhood all day, and roads leading into/out of our neighborhood were blocked off by officers until the prisoner was finally arrested late in the afternoon.

I didn’t take the kids back to the house after I picked them up since an officer initially told me they weren’t letting people back into the neighborhood and, besides that, I was worried the guy might lead the cops on a chase through the neighborhood that might involve gunfire. Since Dylan hadn’t had a chance to eat lunch yet, I took them to Thai House for some pho and pad see ew and then we met Tom at the playground to await word from the Sheriff.

Nerves are still a little wracked–the arrest was made just a couple of blocks away from our home, on a street that is so close, it’s on my regular running route.

Went to sleep last night with more gratitude than ever that family is safe and sound….Thanksgiving continues!!

Here are some links to the news coverage:

• NBC
• KCBA
• Santa Cruz Sentinel
• KRON
• San Jose Mercury News

Let’s hope no more “bad guys” will ever come near these kids again….