Two days ago a young man walked in to a historic mall here in Salt Lake City in a tench coat with a shot gun, a hand gun and lots of ammunition. Within minutes he had killed five people and wounded many others before being killed himself by police. In those short minutes hundreds of lives changed forever and a community was awakened. People shopping, dining, walking, talking or just hanging out were immediately cast into total fear, chaos and confusion.
Young lives taken in a blink of an eye; children lost parents and parents lost children. Another four in critical condition at various hospitals struggling to recover. A young Bosnian man also lost his life and his family are also now victims of this senseless and apparently random act.
Many experts and laymen are going to spend large amounts of time trying to explain why this happened, how it happened, where did he get the guns and how could anyone do something like this? That may be important to some to know however all those answers will not reverse the tragedy that took place. The tragedy is the innocent lives lost, the life of the gunman lost and many families broken and in pain for a very long time. All the answers in the world won't change that.
In times like this, a community is tested. How will we respond? A community is built in the relationships that are established in the good times and in the bad. How we respond to others speaks loudly about who we really are. It was amazing to see and to hear how total strangers became instant teams, and hopefully now acquaintances, as they began to try to find cover or to escape the shooting range. Parents were holding their children trying to shield then and console them. Total former strangers were close by trying to support those parents and reassure the children that everything will be well now that they were safe.
Out of tragedy can come triumph and it will in this case. At the same time, it is still a tragedy.
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