Library mayhem

A few weeks ago we noticed a young-ish (mid 20s?) man coming to the library a lot. He always wore the same camo pants and bright yellow t-shirt, but what really made him stand out was his habit of talking animatedly to himself. He would buy a visitor pass so he could use a computer, and often he would get very agitated, standing up and exclaiming loudly about something he saw online. I would amble over there and nonchalantly ask "Everything going OK, sir?", whereupon he would immediately sit down and be calm for a little while. It was like his craziness would overcome him sometimes, but when someone noticed he could be relatively normal for a bit. We had several other customers voice concern about him but other than just getting a little loud and talking to himself, he didn't really do anything that would get him kicked out.

One night, though, I came out to the reference desk and a different man came up and urgently said "Call the police! That guy just took a swipe at that other guy." I looked over, and sure enough, it was the guy we'd been watching. While I was on the phone with the police, our assailant calmly got up and walked out. The "victim" said he was just minding his own business when the guy next to him started cursing loudly. Not at him but at something he was looking at on the computer. "Then out of the blue, he took a swing at me - missed me by an inch. I told him if he touched me or even came near me again he was in for some hurtin'." Cops arrived and said for us to call them immediately if the guy ever came in again, which he did the following week. Luckily they were able to trespass him with no fanfare, and we haven't seen him since.

I know we're lucky because this could have been so much worse, but it reminded me that the public library is not necessarily a safe place. Anything can happen, and often does.