On Sunday, July 26, Manish Melwani was shot while he was at work at the Pit Stop/ 76 Gas station on the corner of 15th Avenue Northwest and Northwest 58th Street and later died of his injuries.

The next day, a suspect was arrested at a house a few blocks away from the Pit Stop. This senseless and tragic act has really made me stop and think about how precious life really is.
 
You hear about the news of murders and other acts of violence on a daily basis, so much so that it takes a really gruesome case to get your attention. That, or having an act of violence happen to you, someone you know or love, or happen in your neighborhood.

I cannot say that I knew Manish, although I know that I had interactions with him when I went to the Pit Stop for gas. The last time I was there was when I was taking pictures for my previous article. He was a person who worked in my neighborhood and therefore a neighbor. 
 
When I heard that this had happened and read the news accounts, I could picture where everything happened: where Manish was shot, where the suspect dumped his clothes, the house where the Seattle police arrested the suspect. When I drove by the Pit Stop on my way to work on Monday, I saw the flowers that had been placed outside as a memorial.

Unfortunately, when I went to take a picture for this article, they had already been removed. There was an actual connection between this murder and what I could see in my neighborhood.  

It is upsetting to think that murder occurs at all, but it is even more upsetting to think that someone could be murdered in Ballard. But it is also instructive to realize that even though sometimes we take Ballard for granted as its own unique out of the way corner of the universe, it is a neighborhood in a big American city and random acts of violence can happen here.

What is even more upsetting is that the suspect is someone who lives in Ballard. There was a person among us who planned out an armed robbery and was willing to kill someone in order to get what they wanted. There are a lot of different kinds of people who live among us, including some with evil in their hearts.

The vast majority of the people in this neighborhood are quite different. The people who I have talked to have been just as upset and affected by this murder as I have. Is there anything that we can do to prevent such an incident from happening again?

Unfortunately, I do not think there is any way to ensure that another murder or tragic incident will never happen in Ballard or anywhere else. The only things that we can do are be street smart and to talk to and get to know our neighbors and appreciate the interactions that we have with each other.

As we have unfortunately had to learn this week, you should always try to appreciate the people around you because you never know what’s going to happen. 
 
Do you have a column suggestion or a comment for Brian LeBlanc? Leave a comment on this story or reach him directly at brianleblanc76@yahoo.com.