My wife and I have known for a long time, that we need to move out of our neighborhood. There are people in our neighborhood that we absolutely love and would miss, but it’s just not safe.

A quick recap of just some of the significant events that have happened in front of us in recent years.

I was almost rundown, in front of my family by a car fleeing the scene of a drive-by shooting. I was getting out of our car when we heard the shots. Next thing I know, a car is speeding towards me, swirving to put me in its path. I saw the windows roll down and I thought I was going to die. I managed to get out of the way and away from our van that had my family in it. I was afraid if they were going to shoot me, they could hit my my wife or kids. Getting away from them seemed like the only thing I could do to keep them safe.

While they didn’t hit me with their car or open fire, they did throw their loaded guns out the window at me. Two handguns in total.

A few weeks later, someone was literally gutted in front of our house. It was a young male, and I held his intestines in place with my hands until medics arrived. It turns out he had just robbed and murdered someone down the street. His injuries were sustained when the person he’d just killed was trying to defend themselves.

That leads me to the hostage crisis a few years back. Some guy was in the middle of the street firing an assault rifle. He then ran into the house a few doors down and took a lady hostage. It was a standoff for a long time. We had snipers next to our car and cops were everywhere. We ended up getting evacuated by police that night and having to go to my parent’s house.

Yesterday, our neighborhood faced another hostage crisis. This was two doors down and involved two young children.

We are unsure of the details, but I do know that the Dad had his two small children, still in diapers, held hostage. There was a significant response by law enforcement. SWAT responded and got into the house, rescuing the children and taking the Dad into custody. To my knowledge, no one was injured.

This most recent event was done very quietly. There weren’t any sirens or anything like that. I assume they needed the element of surprise.

That said, just looking outside our window and seeing the entire street shutdown and filled with heavily armed police is scary for my kids. For that matter, it’s scary for all of us.

These are just the bigger events that have happened. There isn’t a day that goes by where we don’t hear gunshots. It’s become normal for people to park outside our house to buy drugs and even pick-up hookers. Our van was stolen right in front of us, as we were leaving to take the kids to school. Our garage and vehicles have been broken into on many occasions. Last year, the house across the street was torched in the middle of the night. I couldn’t even get the kids to school that morning because we were completely blocked in.

I hate living like this and want to move somewhere my kids feel safe. They deserve better. They don’t feel safe here, and I don’t blame them.

Every time something new happens, I’m reminded that I can’t provide what my family needs and that’s a shitty feeling. I’m doing everything I can to get us out of here but in so many ways, my hands are tied, and I’m looking at obstacles that I simply don’t know how to get around or go through.

All this weighs heavy and anytime something new happens, that weight gets heavier.