10/16/2008
By Ann Marie Mossman
"Get out of here, Jason!" was all I can remember Ben Patterson yelling at me that fateful December morning 10 years ago. I still don't understand why my best friend of 20 years would suddenly decide to shoot his wife, Sarah, and 3 young children and then turn the gun on himself. I do know, however, that the image of Ben's rugged and handsome face aging beyond recognition in a few moments time will forever haunt me. "Stop Ben! Think about what you are doing." I'm not sure if Ben even heard me. A split second later there was a loud pop and a disturbing thud as the gun discharged its last bullet and Ben's lifeless body dropped to the floor. It was then that I noticed movement from behind Sarah's outstretched arms. The up and down motion of Ben's youngest child's chest was slow at first, but was gradually increasing in intensity with each breath. Without thinking, I ran over to the toddler calling out her name, "Julie. Julie! Stay with me." Then I called for an ambulance. Several police cars and two ambulances arrived a few short minutes later. A large crowd of bystanders had begun to gather on the Patterson's front lawn. The police were trying their best to get people to go home, but in a normally sleepy suburb like Brentwood, just the sound of the sirens was enough to draw attention. "Hey you can't come in here!" called out one of the officers on duty. I wasn't about to tell him that no amount of restraint would keep Lauren Batch, Sarah's younger sister, from bursting through the front door. The police detective had already started questioning me when Lauren, seeing the blood stained torso of her sister lying motionless on the living room floor, collapsed. "Are you paying attention?", the detective asked me in a less than considerate tone. "Oh sorry, my best friend shot himself and his family and his sister in law just passed out right in front of me. I guess you could say I'm a bit distracted." I responded while holding back thoughts of stabbing the detective with the very pencil he was using to take down his report. The feeling subsided when I saw that one of the EMT's had successfully revived Lauren and she was now sitting unassisted on the bottom step of the stairway leading up to the second floor. The expression on the detective's face changed drastically as he came to a sudden realization. "Wait! So, you're saying that this was a murder suicide?" "That is exactly what happened. One moment I'm stopping by to say hi to an old friend, and the next I'm a witness to a brutal shooting. I tried to intervene, but Ben was in a really crazy state. I felt completely helpless." Right then, the sheer madness of it all hit me and I had to find Julie. "Where's the baby?" "What baby?" "The youngest one. She was still alive when I called for an ambulance. I lost track of her when everyone arrived." "She's en route to the hospital. I'm sure she'll be taken well taken care of." the detective said reassuringly. "I hope so. I sure hope so."