devarim

I first heard about this on the news yesterday morning, but I didn't get a chance to find out all the details until just now, reading the New York Times article:

It is not clear what prompted Selina Akther to move toward a window of her fifth-floor apartment in Queens, the police said. Her two children were sleeping and her husband was on a phone call to Bangladesh in another room, so they did not see the stray bullet that crashed through the closed window and hit her in her right eye, leaving her an unintended homicide victim.

It was shortly before midnight on Wednesday when a man in the street below pulled the trigger of a 9-millimeter handgun at least five times, the police said.

* * *

[The man] told investigators that while home on leave, he had visited his goddaughter, drank some beer and vodka, left his family and bumped into some old friends, and then, he said, did "something real stupid."

* * *

After being shot, Ms. Akther lay bleeding on the living-room floor by the bullet-pocked window for about 20 minutes until her husband saw her and realized she was not breathing.

* * *

The next thing neighbors heard were the wails of Ms. Akther's husband, Golam Maola, 38, as he cradled her motionless body. He called 911 and then ran from their apartment looking for help, locking himself out in the process.

* * *

The police said one thing was clear: Ms. Akther was not an intended target but an uninvolved bystander. Her friends and relatives were planning to surprise her tomorrow, her 29th birthday, with a party. It was also meant to celebrate New Year's Eve. Now her birthday and New Year's Eve will always fall around the time of her violent death, the 534th homicide in the city this year.

OK, maybe the lightning would be a sign from God. Hell, they're all probably signs from God. But sharing a birthday with Ms. Akther is not making me feel any better this week.

May her husband and children be comforted in their season of loss, and may we all be spared from random, senseless pain.