John’s Ramblings

As many of you have heard, a Seattle area cyclist was shot while on his regular commute route. Someone in a passing car shot at Peter McKay, and as a result he spent some time in the hospital getting patched up. His personal account of the incident is documented on his blog.

Reactions within the cycling community have been rather heated, to the point of some making comments about “packing heat” when they ride. I do not believe that having more firearms roaming around the streets of Seattle is the answer here. Since we do not know the who and why of this incident, we can’t really say what can be done to prevent such things from happening again.

The Seattle Randonneurs, in conjunction with the Bicycle Alliance of Washington, are setting up a reward fund. The reward money will be administered through the Seattle area Crimestoppers organization for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the shooter(s). A secondary result of the reward publicity is that the general public will be aware of how seriously the cycling community takes these kinds of crimes.

In just a few days of individual contributions, the fund has grown to over $5,000. The organizers would like to have contributions made in the next couple of days, so that the total estimated reward can be put on the Crimestoppers posters and public service announcements. Contributions can be sent two ways:

Checks made payable to the Bicycle Alliance of Washington, and sent to:

BAW
P.O. Box 2904
Seattle, WA 98111

Or via Paypal (https://www.paypal.com)
Payable to donation@bicyclealliance.org

Either way, the donation should be noted as “Crimestoppers - Cyclist Shooting Reward”

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