Anyone here have a personal connection to a mass shooting?

[RedStateLiberal]

3. No, but a friend of mine was shot and killed.

This happened many years after we were friends. I had moved back to my home state and we lost touch. One day I googled his name out of curiosity only to find a news article that he had been shot and killed a few days earlier. (Which was weird because I hadn't even thought about him for years.)

It turned out that he was trying to rip off a crack dealer by grabbing the drugs and running away. The dealer chased him and shot him in the back and he died from the wounds minutes later.

It took a couple of years for them to catch the shooter. I think he was arrested for something else when he admitted to my friend's murder.

When we were friends I knew he was into some shady stuff and I realize what he did that night was incredibly stupid, but nobody deserves to die in that way. Our friendship wasn't that strong due to a failed business venture and we hadn't talked to each other in many years but his death affected me greatly. The violence and senselessness of it was disgusting. News coverage mentioned how people in the neighborhood heard him screaming and yelling for help before he died.

People may kill people, but a handgun made this very easy to do for the fucking coward who killed my friend over a few measly dollars.

Sorry if this is a bit off topic but after recent events I've been thinking about what happened to my friend a lot and needed to get it out into words.