... and I still can't believe that, as I read back the title. This is MAYBERRY, people. This kinda stuff only happens in the big cities.Wrong.
Driving home from work last evening, I saw a cop car hovering outside my complex, then another one exiting the gate as I was entering. We have an entry gate, you know, to keep out the bad people. (What about the bad people already living here?)
As I entered, I saw floodlights, the Fox News van, oodles of cops. I knew it was more than a drug bust, since people were milling around in that weirdly morbid, expectant way you've seen so many times on TV. I knew this meant a dead body.
And it did. Her name was Shivani Boparai and she was only 32 years old. I have probably seen her before, if she lived here for any appreciable length of time. No photos have been published so far.
Her 6-year-old son told neighbors he was locked out; Fox News Carolina initially reported that he was covered in blood. But the door was unlocked, and neighbors discovered Shivani dead from multiple stab wounds. There is some concern that the child may have witnessed this horrible act, but details haven't been released.
When I initially saw all the police cars, I floored my vehicle, pedal to the metal; I wanted inside as fast I as could humanly move. It was an almost unconscious fear that surfaced, that I didn't realize I had...I think I instinctively knew the victim was a woman, somehow. Possibly because this was at home, late on an uneventful, icy-cold weeknight. (Who else would it have been?)
They busted the husband, 37-year-old Harvinder Singh, on his way out of the Wal-Mart... (yes, the very same Wal-Mart I have complained about for over a year).
I guess he needed to do some shopping.
Of course I know that violent crime happens everywhere... and yet somehow, to have it happen so physically close to me, has indeed shaken me. And as a feminist, I am once again reminded that violence against women, wives, mothers, does not take a vacation and you can't keep it out with security gates.
Right now, Singh is being held without bail.
EDITED TO ADD: I can't seem to upload this photo of Shivani--but here is the link.