Recently, the story of the Wichita Horror came up regarding the death penalty portion of the crime. This actually brought back what I could only explain as an actual flashback, because it's something I've completely blocked out of my memory.
December 2000 is when their spree happened, and it happened very close to my neck of the woods. Basically, they started out robbing people at gunpoint and moved on to forcing a group of people to have sex with each other, withdraw money from an ATM, and then shot them execution-style. One survived and was able to identify them. They were caught within a few days of the murders.
However, copycats are a thing. Where I lived, there had been two attempts of copycat crimes, in that people would hang out at a bank late at night, wait for someone to drive up and use the ATM, and rob them, beating them after, both left for dead.
I was 17 and paranoid about this. My boyfriend was from out of state and didn't think this was anything to be worried about. We went to an ATM around 11pm after a movie. We were on the outskirts of town. As we drove in, I noticed two cars in the parking lot and asked him to use a different ATM. He pointed out that they were probably cleaning the place, and there was no one in the cars.
He pulled up and I was looking everywhere. He got the money and his card and turned to grin at me. The car to our right fired on, and someone jumped out of the back seat.
He drove quickly and I gave directions to go to well-lit areas and near places that would still be open. The car containing the guy that jumped out had left the back door open and was following us very closely, occasionally swerving to try and get the back door to latch.
We pulled into the Taco Bell parking lot, which was a high school hangout. It was also a place the police would come to try and bust kids drinking, drag racing, etc. It was very populated and well-lit. We pulled in, and the guy pulled right behind us and parked sideways behind the car so we couldn't back out. I urged my boyfriend to stay in the car and lay on the horn, and I jumped out, pounding on the window of the car next to me, which was full of teenagers. I yelled "Honk your horn!!" and they did. People started getting out of their cars to see what was going on or laying on their horns in unison.
The man following us and I finally made eye contact. He had a giant beard, and he had the deadest eyes I've ever seen. I was really scared, but one of the managers came outside in under a minute and the guy drove off very quickly.
Cops were called, a report was made, and it turns out the car was stolen. He was arrested later for murder. I'll try and find the article.