CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The nation continues to process the aftermath of a mass shooting that killed five people in Raleigh, North Carolina this week.
Family members and friends said some of the victims were gunned down while doing normal, everyday activities. An off-duty police officer was killed while on his way to work, one of the women who died was on her porch talking to a neighbor, another woman was walking her dog when she was killed, and another was out exercising.
The idea someone could be killed in their own neighborhood, going about their daily lives, is haunting families across the country. Just a three-hour drive west in Charlotte, it hits close to home.
"It's a scary thing. I see this stuff on the news, a good bit," Phil D. Williams, a Charlotte resident said while walking with family near Little Sugar Creek Greenway.
“There was something on the Greenway near our house recently, where there was an attempt to rape," Williams said. "And after that happened, there's more of a police presence there."
No one imagines they’ll be the victim of a violent mass shooting, but it’s a reality creeping into American cities all over.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department offers community organizations a two-hour class to train anyone how to survive an active shooting. The training talks about workplace shootings, how to provide first aid, and what to do when law enforcement arrives.
While you can prepare for an active shooting, it never makes it easier when they happen.
“If I were faced with somebody with a gun what, could I really do but run?" Williams said. "I mean it's kind of an unwinnable situation, you just got to hope you get lucky I guess.”
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.