The Wicked Witch is Dead

If anyone deserved the death penalty, it was him.

Seven years ago, my area was terrorized by a sniper - the Beltway Sniper - and tonight, my state executed him.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of the death penalty. But in this case... well... let's just say that if I could've been there myself, I would have been.

People who aren't from here have NO IDEA what this was like. Remember, just 13 months previously we were hit on 9/11, then with Anthrax. We had police permanently assigned to our small private school, and weren't allowed outside.

Getting gas was a life-threatening chore.

I remember the moment when I realized something was very wrong. One evening right after this started, we were walking into a store. A man was leaving the same store, and scared me very badly. He poked his head out the door, looked for the white truck we were all looking for (it seemed like every other car was a white truck!), and RAN. This guy - full grown man - ran like a little girl, dove under his car, and unlocked it by reaching up with his arm, then crawled in from the ground.

That's when I knew something was wrong... terribly, terribly wrong.

And then it happened: Home Depot.

A shopping center I visited several times a week was hit. An FBI analyst was dead. This was the ONLY case I didn't hear about through teachers or the media... nope, for this one, it was the helicopters.

This place was 1 MILE from my house. Immediately, choppers were put up and every major road was shut down. When I heard the choppers and sirens, I knew.

Turned on the news, and there it was.

The next day, I went to the scene. There were media trucks from all over the country, reporters speaking foreign languages, and the parking lot I'd skipped through the week before had blood on it.

I knelt down by the blood... and I prayed.

That was probably shown in the media, I heard cameras clicking, but I was interviewed later that night when we went back to the shopping center to grab dinner at the drive-thru (so we wouldn't have to get out & risk being shot). This ABC reporter followed us with his camera & sound guy and I remember feeling like we were in some sort of nightmare that wouldn't end.

First I was interviewed over 9/11, then this... what next?

Tonight we tuned in, awaiting the announcement that the man who did this to an already-grieving community was dead. I'll admit, I did pray for him & his family, but I also said, "The wicked witch is dead" when they finally said he had been executed.

He's gone... this chapter is closed... he'll never hurt us again.

The wicked witch is dead.