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One might think it would happen more often. Being a reporter, I'm often quickly at the aftermath of some sort of crime or accident. It's the same with my part time avocation, as and EMT in the small area where I live.
Add to that, the world of You-tube, video cell-phones and the like and we're exposed to acts of violence almost daily.
But being there when it actually happens is far different. I certianly wasn't ready for what I saw Wednesday. I'd just completed an interview for a story at the South Salt Lake Police Department, and was driving down State Street, when I noticed a man running at full speed around the corner, and toward another person.
I thought it looked odd and before I knew it, the man had pounced on the other person, then began pounding on him relentlessly with his fists. The victim stood up to try to get away, but the assailant pushed him or her against the wall and continued the assault. I'm not sure whether the victim was a man or a woman.
I was turning left and was stuck behind a few cars waiting for the light. The assault was happening kitty-corner from me, right next to cars heading the opposite direction.
No one that I could see got out to help. Some motorists drove by as if it weren't happening. I grabbed my cell phone and dialed 9-1-1. Then I found myself making the turn when the light changed and cutting through the parking lot of a building to try to get closer to where it all was happening. But the attack lasted maybe only 30-45 seconds. By the time I had arrived, the victim had broken away and run across the street. The assailant jumped in a car, driven by another man, and sped away.
The victim, I think, ran into a near-by business. I was expecting someone in the business to call police. But in my conversation with dispatchers, it seemed like I was the only one who had made a call.
I told dispatchers I didn't think the victim was seriously hurt, and in the entire scope of things, especially in light of the terrible story that had unfolded in South Salt Lake this week, it was a relatively minor thing. But it left me shaken an admittedly a bit traumatized.
I felt a bit guilty just for having witnessed it all. I also thought about why no one intervened. There were a lot of good reasons not to. The most immediate thing that came to mind was the possibility that the assailant may have been armed. When is it worth possibly risking one's life to try to stop an attack? For many, it would have been a no brainer had the victim been the child or an elderly person, but for others maybe not.
After all, to paraphrase a line I vaguely remember from "The Cider House Rules" If you choose to do nothing, you've still made a choice to do something.
