Scariest Night of My Life!!!

So Friday night started out like any other in our quiet little town of Middleton- Erin, my 17 year old sister, was staying the night after a date with a boy from Middleton, and we had all settled in and fallen asleep when I woke up around 1:15am to voices in the front yard. Gracie heard them too and started barking like crazy as she bolted for the front bedroom window. (She is AMAZING! The best dog in the world! So gentle yet so protective as well! She doesn't bark at all unless something or someone is out front that she doesn't like, so we knew something bad was going on)

Jeff, Erin, and I spent the next 30 minutes in awe as the Canyon County SWAT Team yelled through a megaphone at our next door neighbor to "come out of his house with his hands up" They kept flashing a light at his house and repeating his name, saying they had a warrant and he was under arrest. Crazy! We thought it was kind of exciting and tried to video tape the dozen SWAT men that were positioned behind cars and bushes with guns drawn-

(This picture was taken Saturday Morning from our front room window)

After about 30 min of this, they pulled out of the back of the SWAT van the big black door smashing device! We got a little more excited thinking that now we would get to see some real action! We had our front window open so that we could hear better, and we watched as they formed a big V with shields and guns drawn as they approached the neighbors front door- After yelling a few more warnings, they smashed in the front door- Our house shook from the impact! We heard them tell him to come into the living room with his hands up, and then we were stunned to hear a dozen or more shots fired! The group quickly retreated to the SWAT van, and they huddled around planning what to do as the neighbor kept randomly firing shots at them!

We heard them ask each other if they should start evacuting. At this point, we realized that it was getting serious and maybe we should be a little afraid, so Jeff ran to get out one of our guns and load it just in case the man came into our backyard and tried to get in our house. While he was in the other room, one of the SWAT men dashed up to our window and asked how many were in the house- I told him and he replied very sternly 'you need to leave NOW!' We threw on shoes and grabbed Maxton and his blankets (and I forgot to grab his diaper bag!) and we ran to our truck out front with the SWAT guy acting as a human shield for us as we huddled behind him. (Shots were being fired this whole time) We left and saw about 20 men in uniform swarm our front and side yards-

As we left, a neighbor called us to make sure we had gotten out safely, and she assured us that she would keep us posted through the night. We crashed at our friend's house for a long and sleepless night and got a call from the neighbor at 4:30 (we left at 2:30) she told us that they had ladders up to our roof and there were men stationed on our roof as well as surrounding our home. I was just praying that he wasn't in our house! We then got a call at 5:45 from dispatch letting us know that we could go home. We went home around 7:30 to find our home safe and just as we had left it, but our yards, driveway, and Erin's car were all roped off with yellow Crime Scene tape.

We grabbed a few things and went to spend most of the day in Boise, not wanting to be around for all of the questioning and reporters- We later found out from the news that our neighbor, who actually happened to be a very nice guy-not creepy at all, had demanded information from a store owner at gunpoint, so he was wanted for attempted murder. His body was found dead with at least 1 gunshot wound in the backyard kitty-corner to ours at 5:30. We have since then, gone over and talked to his sisters (he was 31 and lived with his mom and brother and brother's girlfriend) and we feel horrible for the family. We were definetly put through a scary ordeal, but its not even close to the pain that they must be feeling- They told me that they had left him there alone as the police had instructed them to do, but now are wondering if they made the right choice or if things would have ended up differently if they had stayed with their brother. Our hearts go out to them! So sad! But in a nutshell, that was by far the scariest thing I have ever experienced! And it is a night that I will never forget!