Thursday 7th May 

It all started with an ordinary day at work. Time 9.15am, replying to my emails at my desk, when there was a very, very loud bang.  Loud enough to make me lift my head and think, that didn't sound like a car backfiring. Then a second bang, next a commotion at the front door. Staff and clients were arriving.

I went to the door. A father was delivering his son and was very agitated. He said he had seen two men running down the street with hand guns and had been told to reverse his car as fast as possible.

 What the hell was going on?

I went to the back of the Beacon to look out. There was a policeman in full combat gear and gun pacing the street. He saw me and shouted to get the hell back inside and not go near the windows. At the same time the phone went and one of the maxi taxis who bring clients said they were turned back at the base of the hill and something bad had happened in the next road to us.

My God I thought, better lock ourselves in.

We had three clients and five staff on the premises. We turned on the radio and discovered a policeman had been shot dead, two more police and a civilian were critically injured. It seemed that the police had been doing a routine search for drugs and all hell had broken loose. This guy was ex army, had loads of firearms and explosives and was holed up in his house.

Thus began two days of lockdown. We were inside the danger zone and police would not allow any movement outside. All day shots rang out.
 
I phoned the police and asked that we be evacuated as this was not a home but a health service. We had eight people and one bed. We had enough food for two days and then it would be cuppa soup and a bread roll. We were told in no uncertain terms that we would have to make do.

We gathered all the pillows and bedding we could find and all slept in the lounge. Four on the floor, two on settees and one on the lazy boy. By this time we had to evacuate one client whose catheter had blocked and an ambulance came and ran the gauntlet to rescue him and take him to hospital. He would have been in agony that night, not being able to go to the toilet.

We were told by the police not to turn any lights on and to pull all the curtains. All the street lights had been turned off and it was like the black hole of Calcutta outside. We had the TV on and found some leftover wine from the Xmas party plus some frozen sausages and rolls. We had a slumber party and were very philosophical about it all.  

The night passed with gun fire at 3:00am and 6:00am. No one slept that well but we all felt more secure being together in one room. We all had a laugh in the morning with complaints that Gizzy our K9 therapist pug dog had kept them awake snoring. 

We hadn't any toothbrushes and five people had left their medication at home, so once again I phoned the police. We were informed it was still lockdown and we would have to phone around people's GP's and they would get a policeman to deliver the drugs people needed.  This happened and I once again asked if we could be evacuated as we had disabled people here and no beds. The answer was once again NO.

We thought we would probably be here another night and decided to do some art and make it as nice a time as we could under the circumstances. One of the client's fathers by this time was getting very agitated. The phone rang non stop for two days with all of our worried families, police and head office.  It nearly drove me mad. No sooner would you hang up and the phone would ring again. 

A client's father rang and said he had had enough and was going to do something about getting us out. I told him, good luck as I hadn't had any success.

Well, I don't know what he said but within half an hour the police rang and said they were sending a police car to escort us out.  Jubilation!!!

We got out at 3.30 pm on the Friday. It was all very surreal. I was absolutely knackered for two days. Just being able to stand down from being responsible for all those people was a relief.  It just shows you how life can change in the blink of an eye. 

Today, Monday, I have the TV cameras at the Beacon for the day. They are doing a programme on the Beacon book. While they were shooting we had the police taking statements, then the local press arrived to do an interview and take pictures.
Never a dull moment.  The gunman shot and killed himself and one policeman, one policeman and Joe Public is critical and one policeman stable but serious.  PHEW!!

 

Lynne Parsons.