Read Aloud the Text Content

This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.

Text Content or SSML code:

It was July 10, 2022. Me, my sister and my grandparents went to Easton, PA to watch the fireworks for Heritage day. We sat down at our normal spot up on a small hill overlooking the Lehigh River. We put our blankets and chairs there and we sat for a while. We had to wait around an hour until the fireworks started so we went for a short walk. We walked the sidewalk all the way to the bridge(This is important later) and we walked back. Skip ahead 30 minutes and the fireworks started. We were sitting down enjoying the show. It was pretty much the same every year. Now, ever since we got to Easton I had a weird gut feeling. I didn’t know what it meant but I kept alert. Well, by alert I mean, I felt unconsciously just alert. It felt like a sense of danger. *sigh* Anyway, we were watching fireworks. 10 minutes into the fireworks, a few people started standing up frightened at something. A few families ran. My family stood up and were confused. Then a police officer came by and said, “Stay Put. Stay where you are.” And I know he meant to say that to calm people down but I knew that would only make people more scared. After he left, we stayed put, trusting the police officer. Then around 1 minute later, oh and by the way it’s like 9:40ish at this point so it’s getting dark, Anyways a big firework boomed. As it boomed, a huge wave or crowd of people were running away from something. I said to my grandmother, “Nana, We need to leave.” We started running with the crowd back to the car. A lot of the crowd was screaming “SHOOTER, SHOOTER!” A lot were even on a call with what I assumed to be their beloved ones also saying, “Oh my god, there's a shooter.” or “I’m scared.” A young woman who was running next to me was on the phone with her mother saying, “Mom, there’s a shooter. I’m scared, I don’t know what to do.” She was crying the whole time. As we were running, to our car there was another big firework. You know the ones with the crackles at the end? The popcorn ones as we would call it. Anyways, they wait a few seconds, like maybe 5 seconds, before shooting another firework. I heard two smaller cracks 2 seconds after that firework. Now I know what a handgun sounds like. It did not sound booming at all and they waited 5 seconds on the crackly ones. So I just instantly knew it was a handgun. I knew what to do in this situation because I went to the Junior Police Academy. I knew what we had to do was go to a building on the main road where police are, or walk along the road to our car instead of going through an alley to get there. I chose to walk beside the main road with my family, because it’d be safer, and to the car, so we could leave. We got to the car and we just sat there thinking. We managed to get out of the parking lot and left. On the ride home we were still thinking. Trying to comprehend what happened. I was shaking from all the adrenaline running through my body. But soon enough it started wearing off, and I felt that I wished I could have done something. When we got home, my parents were awake. It was 11:30 and they usually slept by then. The next day, we found out that it was a drug dealer's problem. It was all about turf for them. It didn’t matter. It was still the most terrifying thing I have ever experienced. Only one person was shot: In the leg and it was the other drug dealer. All of that happened at the bridge we walked down to. Thank you for hearing this out. Have a great day and be safe, alright?