Imagine you’re a black or a Hispanic guy and you’d pinned your girlfriend down inside a car outside your house by pointing a gun at her.

After the SWAT boys came and evacauated the neighborhood, do you think you’d hear one of the officers on the scene say he cared about your welfare, that you were all part of the family?

I don’t think so.

But when a Phoenix firefighter did that yesterday, this is what he got:

Fire Capt. Hugh Chase said the situation was a somber moment for everyone because they were dealing with a well respected fire fighter with more than 20 years of service.

“We’re a tight-knit family … and we care about his welfare,” Chase said.

A somber moment! It wasn’t “somber for everyone.” It was terrifying for one person: The woman he was pointing the gun at.

Oh, yeah: And also for the neighbors who had to be evacuated, and also for the members of the SWAT team who were possibly putting themselves in range of a nut with a rifle.

Neither the Republic nor the local Fox station vouchsafed the creep’s name, which strikes me as odd. I don’t care if you are a firefighter; you sacrifice a little personal privacy when you stick a gun out the window and your girlfriend thinks you’re going to shoot her.

Speaking of which, here’s the most ominous note of all in the Republic story:

Sgt. Andy Hill, police spokesman, said the man and woman are boyfriend and girlfriend, and they are approaching the situation as a domestic issue.

This may just be a slip-up on the reporter’s part, but it’s not a domestic issue; it’s a domestic violence issue. Now the woman and her boyfriend know that, in a future situation in which she fears getting shot, the people coming to help her may consider her assailant “one of the family.”

p.s. Note this, from a KPHO report:

The suspect is a Phoenix firefighter who has been with the department for 20 years. Coworkers say he’s a well respected member of their firefighter family. But friends of his girlfriend’s sons said he has a history of drug use and abuse.

If true, it’s a welcome bit of information, but if it’s not, the assertion strikes me as possibly libelous. A “friend of the girlfriend’s sons” may or may not have first-hand knowledge, and there’s no indication in the story the reporter tried to corroborate it.