Murder Down the Street

Ours is an early morning neighborhood. On recycling day the truck will have come and gone by 6:00 am. Our 17 year old dog needs to be walked early. Nearly blind, and almost totally deaf, she rarely notices the neighbor and little dog 4 houses down who, like us, are always out for a morning constitutional by 5:00am. Sometimes a late night trip to the water bowl for her, or some looming deadline for me, will have us up and out the door at a time where our early morning overlaps with the late nights of others.

Thus it was that we were out for a walk just three hours and two blocks away from Randy LeDuc's murder. I don't recall ever seeing LeDuc, though the "Amen Brothers," the twice retired gentlemen who congregate in the front yard of another neighbor, say he'd lived among us off and on for several years. These men, with careers in the Air Force and Army long behind them, know every person and every vehicle in southwest Port Tampa. During the day, if one or the other didn't belong they'd know it. They'd be a savvy detective's first stop.

But LeDuc was murdered at 1:00AM, near his "home." Home was a trailer parked in the yard of Italian Cast Stone. The thriving manufacturer of ornamental concrete is generally regarded as a good neighbor, with all trash swept and things buttoned up and tidy at the end of each business day. If you noticed the trailer at all you'd assume it was used for storage. Within hours of LeDuc's death the block looked just the same. No spontaneous memorials at the site of his shooting. No weeping relatives decrying random violence or official ineptitude. No police tape cordoning off the area for investigators to comb and recomb the crime scene for evidence. His shooting occured near us, but not among us.

Two weeks later I'm not sure how the loss of LeDuc affects my sense of safety. I don't hesitate to grab the leash and head out the door after midnight, but are we keeping the walks short for the old dog's sake or mine?