Weekend Shooting at Cheddar’s Reminds Us to Always be Observant

By now, many have heard of the shooting that took place Saturday night in the bar area at Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen on the southeast loop in Lufkin.  This is an area full of restaurants, a couple of home improvement stores and a major theater.  It's an area where you will find many families, especially on a weekend night, such as this one.

Had this shooting taken place 24 hours earlier, my son would have been in very close proximity to the incident.  He works next door as a server at another popular restaurant.  In fact, it was one of his co-workers that alerted him through Snapchat of the video scene that was taking place in the next door Cheddar's parking lot.  Numerous patrol vehicles had assembled and a few minutes later we heard there was a shooting.

Thankfully, the shooting resulted in a minor injury.  That person was treated at a local emergency room for a foot/ankle injury and was subsequently released.  One woman was arrested in connection to the shooting and taken into custody and was booked into the Angelina County Jail.

That woman is identified as Nabrisha Handy, 29, of Lufkin. She is being charged with deadly conduct – discharge of a firearm. The incident apparently stemmed from a domestic dispute involving Handy and the woman who was wounded, identified as Akeyah Howard, 25, of Lufkin. Handy was released from jail after posting a $10,000 bond.

The world is getting more and more chaotic, which leads me to one of my major takeaways from this incident.  From the moment my children could understand what I was saying, one of the first things I tried to teach them was to always be observant of their surroundings.  Whether you're at home, at school, at a restaurant, in a car, whatever or wherever, look around and know what's happening around you.  It may entertain you, it could educate you, or it may even save your life.