I left my apartment for the first time in days. I usually try to go for afternoon walks, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. It felt good to get out and stretch my legs.

I almost got hit by a cop car going the wrong way on a one-way street.

Surely, I’m mistaken I thought as I heard the siren get closer from the wrong direction, but I could not see. A huge, black SUV blocked my 5’4″ view. I was saved by an old man on a bike trailing a huge speaker behind him. I didn’t realize the blasting rap music was his until he pulled away.

“Watch ya’self now,” he said. “They’re after the guy with the gun.”

“EXCUSE ME?” I removed one earbud.

“Turn around,” he instructed.

I did.

About 200 feet away, where I had just walked, three or four cops were tackling a man. Other police SUVs were arriving from the wrong and right ways on Throop Ave. I couldn’t tell if the guy on the ground was Black, white or other. The old man repeated that the guy on the ground had had a gun then pedaled away. I followed suit on foot.

There were other pedestrians at the scene. They were recording on their phones.

Between covid still raging in these streets and today’s events, I’m thisclose to becoming agoraphobic.