Yesterday, a guy we know was arrested for holding up a Waffle House...actually the Waffle House where you once were the cook...
Warrenville man who local investigators say has been involved in at least two local restaurant armed robberies and a home invasion, as well as holding the sheriff's adult son and three other victims at gunpoint, has been arrested....
...He is also under investigation for his alleged role in a similar holdup on March 22 at a Waffle House on Edgefield Road in North Augusta and a Waffle House on Riverwatch Parkway in Augusta the following day.
North Augusta Public Safety officers say they have also charged him with an unrelated home invasion.
During the holdup at the Clearwater Waffle House in April, the Warrenville man was charged with the additional crime of holding a group of customers at gunpoint in the parking lot as he made his escape, officials said.
Aiken County Sheriff's Office officials said Tyler entered the Clearwater Waffle House on Jefferson Davis Highway with a semi-automatic handgun around 9:45 p.m., fired a shot into the ceiling while the business was occupied and made off with money.
"Man charged in holdup, robberies" - he's just a man charged with a crime in the papers and on the news...but I know he is a son, a brother to two sisters, and a father to a daughter...He had cleaned up his life a few years ago...I didn't know he had fallen back down the rabbit hole...From the look of his mug shot I'd say meth was his drug of choice...even though that is just speculation...but meth is a popular drug where we lived...
I know where this guy comes from...his picture splashed across the papers and on the news reports...times likes these are when you find out who your friends are...people will stare, glare, talk behind your back...how do I know? because I've been on the receiving end...having the story of your death on the bathroom floor of a trailer spread like wildfire through a small town isn't easy...looking someone in the eye and owning that story is hard...even our mother hated to leave the house for almost two years because people can be, well, stupid, inconsiderate, and at times just cruel...and we're talking people who are supposed to be filled with the love of Jesus Christ (reminds me of the movie Saved!).
Drugs have changed this family's lives forever...from the embarrassment you're ashamed to feel...helplessness that someone you love is in so much trouble you can only sit back, watch, and wait...fear of what is to come for this person, your entire family...the questions asked over in over in your head (Why? What could I have done to prevent this from happening? How did things get to this point?)...it's only natural...we're human...
We know that the devastating earth quake that is addiction is in the hands of the addicted...but the after shocks resonate far and wide...and family pays the price over and over...It's never too much...Why, because of a bond that can't be broken, won't be broken by chemicals, robberies, steel bars...we can make the addict accountable, not be enablers, show no sign of co-dependency...but watching someone you love struggle even by their own hand will never be easy...
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