Clackamas Town Center shooting

A lot of my readers from other areas of the country and around the world know that I come from Clackamas County, Oregon.  By now, it's likely that you've heard that there was a shooting at the Clackamas Town Center mall located in that area.  Two people were killed and a third was injured.  A lone gunman took his own life. 

Here's our own small update on this: everyone we know is all right.  I was with so many other people yesterday morning, hoping that the Sheriff's Department didn't say the name of one of my many friends when he announced the victims.

My sister-in-law, Kara, and our nieces were planning to go shopping at CTC around that same time, but circumstances changed and they couldn't go.  My friend, Robert, was downstairs working in American Eagle, just below where the shooting occurred.  He was safe and got out as quickly as possible.  There were a few other friends that would have been at the mall, but for different reasons decided not to go.

Regardless of the proximity of our relationships, the fact that two were killed is a huge tragedy.  This happened about 50 yards from where I took Anne-Marie on our first date 15 years ago.  There are a lot of people that have similar memories.  It's terrible that for 10,000 Oregonians, their most memorable experience at Clackamas Town Center will be one of tragedy and fear.