ICE trucks roll up in front of Crestwood School
Sandy is out front planting flowers when four ICE trucks roll up in front of Crestwood School and a dozen agents spill out into the courtyard. She stares in shock for a moment before dropping the spade and running for her front door. She grabs the whistle off its hook, spins around, and begins blowing with all her might.
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The school secretary, as the person closest to the front entrance, jumps up the moment she hears the whistle. Running past a pair of confused children, she yells at them to get to their rooms Now!, and half-falls, half-slams into the front door, barring it only a moment before one of the masked men reaches out to open it from the other side.
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In the classrooms, every teacher follows the plan they developed at the meeting last week. First they lower all the blinds, as much to keep ICE from seeing in as to keep the kids from seeing out, and tell the children to take their seats. In the kindergarten and Grade 1 classes, they crank up loud pop songs and gather the kids in the center of their rooms.
“C’mon kids! Dance party!”
“What’s going on outside, Ms Tripp?” one of the twins asks.
“Oh, it’s nothing.” The child gives her a serious look; Tripp forces a big smile. “Get your shoes on, sweetie.”
The teachers go to their doors, do a quick check to clear the halls, and then lock their classrooms from the inside. EAs are sent to check the washrooms; older siblings from the upper grades are quickly escorted to where their younger brothers and sisters are, and every class goes into lockdown. Outside, more whistles start blowing.
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There are five or six Parent Council moms in the school on any given day, helping wherever they’re needed. Grace is queen bee this year. They had their own meeting last week, and made their own plan.
They gather in front of the gym. Thirty feet away, the principal and the secretary are facing half a dozen ICE agents through the glass of the front doors. The Sheriffs are demanding to be let in; the principal is refusing. Everyone’s pointing their phone cameras at each other. Whistles are blowing, the vice principal is speaking over the PA, and the halls are rapidly clearing.
Grace looks at her Council moms: all wide-eyed, panicked to various degrees, but listening. She confirms the plan with three words: “Grade One hall?” They all nod. “Let’s go.”
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More neighbors are gathering along 19th, across the street from the school. Three masked ICE agents are facing them, canisters in hand, telling them to stay back; the rest are at the front of the school, testing doors and shouting at people inside.
In a detached way, Sandy knows her brain is in crisis mode, that she’s not herself. She sees the guns, the trucks, her neighbors. All she can hear is whistles, and she knows she’s getting lightheaded from blowing her own.
.
She pauses to take a few deep breaths, and hears command voices streaming from the radios in the ICE trucks, giving directions. How many agents are in Medicine Hat anyway? She struggles to think clearly, but she knows it’s over a hundred. Where are the rest of them? Does she hear a siren? Does ICE even use sirens?
She looks around. To her right, an empty school bus is turning onto 19th from 21st, heading to Crestwood for pickup. Sandy breaks into a run, straight up the middle of the street, waving her arms. The bus stops just past the ball diamond. The driver opens his window and looks at her.
“What’s going on?” he asks.
Panting, she yells “Block the street!”
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The kindergarten class is in the center of the building, it has no windows, and, most important, there are no immigrant children there this year - which is why the moms are starting to barricade the vulnerable Grade 1&2 hallway now. There are four rooms on each side, and they all have ground-level windows. Most have at least one foreign-born student, the obvious targets of this raid. The Grade 1 classes face the courtyard with the ICE agents. They can’t see through the blinds, but a few of the masked Sheriffs are quickly working their way along the row of windows, probing for a way in.
When the moms arrive at the mudroom entrance to the hall, there’s a standoff going on. Three agents are outside, yelling to be let in. Facing them through the glass, silent and unmoving, is the caretaker Mr. Shepherd, holding a shovel in his hands.
Two moms have the gymnasium doors open and are hauling out armfulls of equipment, floor hockey nets and gym mats, piling them on the floor of the mudroom. “Help us!” they shout, and Mr Shepherd turns around, sees what’s they’re doing, and rushes to help.
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Inside Ms Tripp’s room the dance music is doing the trick, for all but the three Ndogo kids.
Gabriel is probably 12 or 13, but he’ll never know for sure. When his family arrived in Canada last year he lacked any documents that would confirm his identity, including age. They put him in Grade 6 so he could be in the same school as the twins, at least for a year. Right now Gabriel has one of those twins in each arm, his back against the door, facing the shuttered windows.
The white kids are dancing in the middle of the room, ignored by Ms Tripp, whose eyes are locked with Gabriel’s. He’s a large boy, almost man-sized already, and right now, he looks like a man. “I’m going”, his eyes say, “You do you, but I’m going.” Ms Tripp bites her lip and gives Gabriel a shallow nod. Suddenly, behind her, a window shatters.
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Gabriel pounds up the hallway, leaving the door open. The screams of dozens of children follow him, and the first wisps of tear gas. Arriving in the mudroom, he looks left and sees the black-clad arms of masked men reaching in through the broken window. Mr Shepherd faces the break-in across a pile of floor hockey equipment; he’s holding a gym mat as a shield in his left hand, a plastic goalie stick in his right.
Gabriel looks to his right, where a set of heavy double doors opens onto the rear compound. Stephanie, a mom, is at the door with two Syrian girls from Grade 2. She shouts to Grace, who is throwing shoes at the masked heads squeezing through the broken windows, telling her the compound is empty. Gabriel realizes that Stephanie wants to make a run for it with the Syrians.
Unsure for a moment what to do, Gabriel's decision is made by the ICE commander at the school’s front door, who has lost patience with the principal. He grabs a canister gun from the agent next to him and signals another to smash the window. The principal and the secretary turn and run back to the office, diving inside as the front hall fills with smoke and flashbangs. Unable to breathe, they have no choice but to close the office door behind them. The VP is still on the PA, terrified, but telling everyone to stay in place with their doors locked.
Gabriel can’t see the front office area from the mudroom, but he can hear the flashbangs. He grew up hearing gunfire, and instinctively believes shooters have gotten into the building. Stephanie, he thinks, has the best chance of surviving the next few minutes. As he turns to follow her out the back door he steps on a hockey ball and a leg goes out from under him. He yelps, falling toward Grace, who automatically grabs the twins from him. Gabriel rolls with the fall, coming up beside Mr Shepherd just as the batons start to fall. The last thing he hears is the twins screaming.
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On the other side of the school from Sandy, Jon wheels his school bus onto 19th from Dunmore for regular pickup. Six ICE vehicles have formed up beside 7th Day Adventist, and they turn onto the road alongside his bus, heading for the school. This is reckless, it’s only a two-lane road and they’re playing chicken with a row of parked cars. Jon can’t yet see the courtyard around the elbow in 19th ave, but he suddenly becomes aware of the whistles, and then several people running down the road toward his bus, waving their arms and shouting. He looks down his mirrors at the two ICE vehicles tracking beside him, four more behind, and realizes what’s happening.
Without thinking twice, Jon cranks his wheel, crushing the two black trucks against the parked cars and dragging the whole mess into a heap at the top of the elbow. He checks his mirror for the others, shifts into reverse, and rams into two more ICE vans, all of it ending as a slag pile blocking the alley behind Unlimited Characters. A bit dazed, Jon wobbles to his feet as armed ICE agents surround his bus. Jon raises his hands, but they open fire anyway.
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Stephanie sees Mr Shepherd and Gabriel go down under the thrashing batons, the ICE agents struggling to get past the pile of gym equipment. She pushes the Syrian girls out the door and follows them through. Grace is right behind her, the Ndogo twins in her arms.
The panicked Syrians turn right and start running alongside the school, heading for the front courtyard where their parents are usually waiting for them. Stephanie screams at them “No! Not that way! Come back!” The girls ignore her and disappear around the corner of the school. Stephanie exchanges a last look with Grace, and runs after them.
Grace looks across the long stretch of empty field, probably 400 meters or more to reach the presumed shelter of Crestwood Pool. She starts running. The twins are hysterical, clutching her for dear life but twisting at the same time, looking back at the door, desperate to see their brother following after them. By the time Grace clears the playground, the only one coming through that door is an ICE agent, gun in hand.
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In the alley behind Crestwood Plaza, several people can see Grace running across the soccer field: In the fenced play area behind Eager Beavers, the Canadian caregiver is pressing her face against the fence, looking toward the commotion at the head of the alley where Jon’s bus has just come to its final resting place, while the South Asian caregiver, more worried, is gathering up the children and hustling them inside; Behind McBride’s, a baker has come out to see what’s going on, but most of his sightline is blocked by a semi trailer pulled up to make a delivery to the liquor store. There, a turbaned driver has his dropgate down and is using a power jack to pull pallets of beer into the dock at Everest. It will be his last delivery.
One by one, they turn and see Grace, struggling to run with a child in each arm, yelling for help, and the dark gunman running after her. Grace is heading for the tennis courts, but it’s obvious she won’t make it. There’s a break in the fence behind the Chinese restaurant, and the baker runs for it.
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Grace is virtually blind with panic, tears and exhaustion. The two daycare workers start yelling at her to come This Way! This Way! She changes course and reaches the gap at the same time as the baker. He takes one child from her and then pulls Grace by the wrist, back through the alley toward the bakery.
Just then the daycare girls scream terrifyingly. Twenty meters back, the ICE agent has stopped running and brought his gun to his shoulder. Bullets ping through the chainlink fences and slam into the wall of the daycare. Racing for the back door of the bakery, the baker sees the Sikh driver running forward. Further back, more agents have come around the wrecked school bus and are spilling into the alley. Bullets are coming from two directions. The baker loses his hold on Grace’s wrist as he ducks behind a dumpster for a moment, then sprints for the open door of the bakery.
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The two Syrian girls turn the corner at the east end of the compound and run toward 19th and the imagined safety of their parents’ vehicles. But there are no parents’ cars there today, only chaos, masks and smoke. Three Sheriffs block the gap between the school wall and the playground fence. Stephanie has turned the corner and yells at the girls in horror to STOP!, but they don’t hear her, or won’t listen, and each runs into the arms of an agent, who scoops them up and carts them off.
Stephanie tries to follow, but the third agent puts a hand out to stop her, then stands there silently. Stephanie claws weakly at him, wailing, “Please! Please! Just let them go!” The agent cocks his head sideways, as if thinking for a moment, then whips out his handgun and smashes her across the head with it.
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The baker has dropped the first twin inside the bakery, and can hear the second crying right behind him. He spins around in the doorway and starts pulling the heavy steel door shut as the last twin runs inside. In a final glance he takes in the horror twenty feet away: Grace is falling to the ground in front of the dumpster; bullets ricochet off its steel hull. He can’t tell if Grace is hit or has just tripped. Running toward her, reaching for her, is the Sikh driver, and he’s definitely hit. The baker sees their outstretched hands grasp each other as they both fall to the pavement, then he pulls the door shut and locks it….
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On the other side of the door, it takes three minutes for the shooting to stop.
It takes several more minutes for the ICE agents to give up trying to force the bakery’s back door, and another ten for the twins to stop screaming.
It takes over an hour for the ICE commander to allow Medicine Hat Police onto the scene, and twenty more minutes before they let ambulance crews into the school and the alley beside it. By that time most of the children have been evacuated to the ball diamond in the north playground, which has become total chaos as the roads fill up with frantic parents and their vehicles. Fire trucks, ambulances and police cars struggle to get through while ICE vehicles push their way out. No one knows how many persons they’ve apprehended.
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EPILOGUE
Sandy Watson, 42, was found dead in her vehicle. After stopping the school bus at the north end of 19th ave., Sandy realized that 23rd street was still wide open. She ran back to her own truck and drove it into the intersection of 23rd and 20th. Realizing that her vehicle was too small to fully block the intersection, she remained behind the wheel and used her truck like a bumper car to prevent more ICE vehicles from reaching the school.
Sandy was shot three times (once in the head at close range), and pronounced dead at the scene.
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Gabriel Ndogo suffered a concussion and a disfiguring scar on his forehead and temple. It is uncertain when, or if, he will recover his ability to speak, as the doctors don’t know whether his silence is the result of neurological or psychological harm.
The Ndogo twins wake up screaming every night, and refuse to be separated from each other, or from Gabriel. As they also refused to return to school, a group of volunteer teachers and EAs has set up a rotation to provide their home schooling for the time being.
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Jon Cartwright, 56, a school bus driver for 12 years, was pronounced dead at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds.
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Stephanie Presley, 34, remains in a coma, her brain swollen with hematoma fluid. It is uncertain whether she will regain consciousness. The two Syrian girls have not been seen since the raid. The principal and VP went to the addresses the school had on file for their families and found their doors kicked in, with burnt-out flashbang debris inside. The whereabouts of the girls and their families is unknown.
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Grade 1 teacher Sylvia Tripp, 30, was struck in the back of the head by a tear gas canister fired into her classroom. The cranial damage from the impact was devastating. Tripp was declared dead at the scene.
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Amandev Singh, 24, sustained multiple gunshot wounds to his back and resultant catastrophic trauma to all major organs. He died at the scene, and it is likely his body shielded Grace from several rounds of fire.
Grace Kozlowski, 36, was struck in the calf and thigh by three bullets, two of which travelled through her body and left exit wounds. The Sheriffs which surrounded her and Singh in the alley behind McBride’s did not offer first aid, and she remained on the ground, clutching Singh’s hand, for nearly two hours - the EMTs who eventually evacuated her had to pry her grip from his. Grace is expected to make a near-total recovery, although with a permanent limp.
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UPDATE NOTE: MHPS MADE THIS POST THE DAY AFTER THE POST WAS MADE ON FACEBOOK.
Following the successful raid on Crestwood School, Corporal J. Wright received a Medal of Commendation by the Alberta Sheriffs Police Service (commonly referred to as “ICE”) for his role in the apprehension of several minors suspected of immigration violations.
After his failed bid for re-election to the Alberta Legislature, former MLA Wright informed his colleague Danielle Smith of his intention to apply for a position with the Sheriffs. Although no longer premier, Smith assured Wright she would arrange a Commander position for him. Wright still doesn’t know why he was brought on as a Corporal, and while he has left messages, Smith isn’t returning his calls.
