Musings of a Dead Parrot

Story from Rosh Hashanah - Accidental shooting at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas

And now the rest of the story from my aunt who was at this temple when it happened.

I'll bet your service wasn't as exciting as ours! Amazingly there was no outcry from anyone, including the man's daughter who was wounded in the foot and two others who apparently were hit by fragments of the bullet as it shattered on the slate floor.

In fact it was eerily quiet. The rabbi stopped, looked in the direction of the incident then continued. Having only a moment to decide what to do and in the absence of a panic, he made the right decision. Some of the people immediately in the area took other seats or left, but without talking. A woman from Israel grabbed her daughter, put her in her lap and ducked. How sad. An ambulance was called, but I never heard a siren so even that was peaceful. The wounded walked to the ambulance.

Temple personnel, including the executive director (Rick Rosenberg, Richard and Sidney's son) quietly carried a large bucket down the aisle and mopped up.
The culprit is 81 and has carried a gun for years after a career in security. His family has been trying to get him to stop carrying; let's hope he does now.

I was concerned it might have been a new friend from New Orleans who carries and had been ushering in the aisle near the incident. He was a building contractor in New Orleans and was influenced by the crime there. I don't know if he had his gun with him but I'm going to ask the next time I see him. Well, L'Shona Tovah! "