Police who were asked to check in on a family of four at a house in Arlington, Massachusetts came upon a heartbreaking scene this week. An entire family is dead -- a dad, a mom, and their twin sons. Scott Jones and Mei Kum Jones' baby boys would have turned a year old next Monday, but cops say they died "violently" just a week shy of their 1st birthday.
Not surprisingly, neighbors are shaken, but it isn't because of any threat to them. Cops released a statement meant to settle residents' nerves. They say no one's in danger anymore, so they should move on.
But can anyone really do that when an entire family up the street is dead?
Said Arlington Police Chief Frederick Ryan:
There is no risk to public safety at this time. We’re quite certain the community is safe and people can go about their business this evening.
But how? How do you go about your business with this in your midst?
Based on what the cops are saying, I guess we're supposed to think it was an isolated incident that relates only to this family. Some family and friends who spoke to the media shared details of the Jones' troubled marriage, including an impending divorce.
We don't yet know how the family of four died, and for the sake of the Jones' family members, I won't go jumping to any conclusions here -- even though I'm sure the neighborhood is, despite the cops' admonishments. How can they not?
Perhaps I'm just a nosy neighbor, or maybe it's because I was raised in a small town where everyone didn't just know their neighbor but had an investment in one another, but in my experience, when something terrible happens to one family in a neighborhood, it happens to them all. There is no shrugging off the deaths of two little babies you used to see in their stroller going for walks with mom. There is no going about your day when a family was slaughtered just a few hundred feet from your house.
My heart goes out to the families of Scott and Mei Jones and their little boys today.
How do you deal with tragedies in your neighborhood? Do you just figure it's none of your business or are you drawn to the details?
Image via Matty Ring/Flickr