Woman Watches Shooting Unfold By Window
By: Aaron Cheslock
Updated: December 23, 2012
CANOE CREEK, BLAIR COUNTY - Two days after a tragic shooting near Geeseytown, a neighborhood still shaken tries to pick up the pieces and move on.
The Juniata Valley Gospel Church held a Sunday service in the morning, just over 48 hours after a woman was shot there putting up Christmas decorations.
WTAJ News spoke to a neighbor, who watched the whole scene develop from her back window, and knew right away, that something was wrong.
Elmiva Fetters knows Billy Rhodes' family. Rhodes was one of three people shot dead by Jeffrey Michael on Friday.
"They were just a real good family, a real good family... It's such a tragedy."
Fetters says she woke up when her dog Buddy started barking, then she got a phone call.
"The person who did this thing was still on the loose... I shed a few tears because I was afraid."
When the coroner's van came, a boy shouted out. She calls the sight, unforgettable.
I'll forever see that scene of that boy crying and screaming no, I'll never forget it"
Fetters says she watched the entire situation develop outside of her back window, all the crime scenes were across the street on Juniata Valley Road. She says while she's scared, she's not going anywhere, but for folks near Canoe Creek, Christmas time won't be the same for a long time.
"They'll never forget it, every Christmas will be the same way, they'll relive that every Christmas that they're on this earth."
Fetters says this tragedy is now part of the area's history, just like a tragic shooting one week before it.
"It's be forever changed, this little community, just like in Connecticut, I mean my god those people will never forget..."
She doesn't hate Jeffrey Michael.
"People may hate him for what he's done, I don't hate him, and I pity him."
Fetters thinks you should find love in your heart for everyone. And while she knows she'll never know what the families in mourning are going through. But if it was her, she says she'd find it in her heart to forgive Michael.
"I'd be able to forgive the shooter, but not forget"
Juniata Valley Gospel Church held services this morning but cancelled its Christmas party.
The same party that Kimberly Scott was decorating the church for, when she was shot and killed.
