Gunfire Really Does Sound Like Firecrackers

This was our table at Suzie's Chinese food (near Sullivan on Bleecker Street), where we sat down to eat last night. That information would be uninteresting if just a few short minutes later we hadn't heard the eerie sounds of firecrackers that sounded a little too much like gunfire. It's amazing what one can brush off because it doesn't fit the ideal of what should happen on a tourist-filled Village street around 9:30pm on a balmy March night. However, shortly thereafter, when people from the street frantically rushed into the restaurant amid yet a truly convincing (and long) barrage of gunfire, we ducked under the table. And then we noticed that police cars had blockaded off the street, and it was empty.

When the shots were over and everyone in the restaurant started moving back to routine, it was hard to feel unsafe, since I have no doubt that we were--at that moment--in the most heavily policed area of the city. Of course being in New York means that you don't experience something like this alone, so people starting coming in, reporting a body in the street, a police officer shot, a suspect escaped (that last part now appears not to be true). It's amazing how many details escape the mind when under pressure. Between the three of us at the table, we couldn't decide, had there been two gun bursts or three, did the police officer cordon off the street before the second round of shots or after, did those officers run down the street before any shots were fired, and how much time elapsed between the series of "pops"? And so we told the waiter we needed some time, and instead of concentrating on the menu, we watched the police cars pull up, one after another, the officers get out, walk towards the scene, clear the streets. Eventually we got a glimpse of the  top suited brass make their way down the block.

Showing our true New York spirit, we eventually ordered and ate, but the talk turned to less happy topics like "When in your life did you think you might die?"  The odd thing about this experience was that it seemed so removed and impersonal, yet we were visibly shaken. And then there was leaving and walking away, which was easy, despite the fact that less than a block away someone lay dead on the ground.