Last week, after running by The Port Arthur News office to check on progress of our remodel, I drove toward El Paso as I do most times when leaving the office. It’s easier to cross Memorial at the light 25th street than at 23rd.

While making my turn onto El Paso, I noticed a couple of young ladies arguing in the middle of the street, in front of a house. I had a feeling this argument was going to escalate for whatever reason, so I slowed my vehicle down to ensure nobody got hurt. As I did so, the two individuals noticed me and began to calm down and stepped back into the driveway of the house.

For some reason, I knew that wasn’t the end of it, so I drove down to 25th street, turned right back onto Memorial, then back to the Port Arthur News parking lot. From there I could see the argument become heated again. Soon after, one woman began swinging at the other. Right about that same time, a young toddler, bare naked, went running into the driveway toward the street, where the two continued to fight.

As a fight between two people would have warranted a regular call to the PAPD, the toddler now added in the mix had me grab my phone and call 911. While on the phone with the dispatcher, the fight began to grow increasingly worse. The toddler was being put into the car and then taken out and put back in again, while the young ladies continued to throw blows.

Then one individual retreated back to the car and came back with a gun. From my distance it looked like a regular handgun. She lifted it high above her head pointing down, toward the head of the other individual who was backing away slowly.

Still on the phone with 911, I let the dispatcher know that a gun was now involved. Over the next 60 seconds before the PAPD officers arrived, both parties got into the car together.

Luckily they were still on the scene in the car when the officers arrived. Both were asked to step out of the care one at a time to discuss what was going on with the officers. The officers checked the gun and what appeared to be a regular handgun to me was only a BB gun. Apparently both individuals in the car knew this, or at least claimed to.

As there was not a law broken, the two young ladies and the toddler were sent on their way, and drove off.

The sad part of this is the young toddler who was watching all this go down and hearing and watching the incident escalate to the level it did.

The scary part is the instinct of one individual to pull a gun on the other. Yes, it was only a BB gun, but had she still had the gun in her hand when the officers arrived, this incident could have become much worse, BB gun or not. Let’s not disregard, pulling a gun on another person, period, simply because of an argument, is a bad idea.

Many times our anger and frustrations lead us to think irrationally. However, those are the times we need to work harder to think rationally. Fight the hate. Don’t be a statistic.

Rich Macke is publisher of The Port Arthur News. Contact him at rich.macke@panews.com.