I'm a little late in posting this, but I really feel the need to vent. If anyone has been wondering why I haven’t been round as of late, here’s why…
On New years eve/day, a buddy who played hockey with me was stabbed to death at a party. There is a lot of drama that is linked to it all but to sum it up, he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was hanging with a fella one night at a bar around xmas. The guy he was with that night was out to put a good kicking to someone because he rapped his girlfriend. Well, a group of "thugs" found out that one of their boys was roughed up so they came to town and crashed a party that my cousin was putting on for new years, knowing who was going to be there. Shortly after 12am, some rough stuff started going down so my cousin kicked everyone out. These thugs who crashed the party circled the house, came in the back door and started opening everyone up. Apparently, someone knew this was going to happen, but when the gang didn’t show up at the specified time, he thought it was all going to blow over so he didn’t say anything. Imagine living with that on your shoulders, eh?
5 were sent to hospital with pretty bad wounds, one also had a gun pulled on him but the cops showed up in time before they could pull the trigger. These guys ran and are yet to be found but what they did, has left a real bad picture painted on our town. One of the 5 (my hockey bud) was on the operating table for 4 hours. His insides were so badly carved up that he lost his fight after 7 or 8 units of blood. They just couldn’t stop the bleeding. A smaller guy was being harassed by one of the thugs, and Jon stood up for him. They recognized who he was from the night at the bar and shanked him 6-7 times in the stomach. Another one of the guys who plays hockey with us, works with one of the boys who were at the party that night. He faired off lucky by being able to survive but will always have a "smile" to remember them by. The gang bangers gave him a "Joker" by placing a blade in his mouth on either side and cut him. In all honesty, who in their right fucking MIND would do such a thing?
The 1st of a 2 day wake is tonight with funeral tomorrow and with all of this, more and more info keeps surfacing about that night and the events. Some reports have people going on record to state they believe one guy who is in for his bail hearing today is innocent. He’s facing charges of attempted murder, assault causing bodily harm and has had similar charges against him in the past. Now, I am all for innocent until proven guilty. But he was holding the weapon which was used to stab one of the other people in attendance in the back, and from what has been reported, admitted to doing it.
With the connections and links to all of this, I'm assuming it's not going to be safe for a long time to go to hockey as this is looking more and more likely to blow up. One of them goes to trial today for a bail hearing, they have the identities of 2 more and the guy who apparently committed the rape and headed up the whole plan is now missing. Kinda seems like an every day thing if it were a major center we lived in, but in a town of maybe 8000, anyone who knew the victims of that night are damn near scared to go anywhere and are constantly looking over their shoulder. Considering these guy’s connections, some are even scared to attend the wake/funeral.
Sorry for the rant folks, if it’s kind of all over the place. I’m at work right now and my mind is a ball of shit right now. Not looking for answers from ya’ll, just wanting to get this out. Pretty sure he was going to be heading back out west for work soon. I just wish it wasn't this way that I had to say good bye to him.
R.I.P. Jon, you’ll be missed buddy.

We'll be raising a glass or two for you tonight.