Shoot up in the park

Several years ago, several RV parks ago, I met and made a friend I'll refer to as C.  He was new to Austin and new to living full time in the RV.  C moved to Austin to be closer to his daughter after selling his house and losing his job.  C has been unable to find a job for the past three years, maybe more.  He left the park we were both living in for an RV park in Bastrop his life long friend, M, was managing. 

M was living in the park as a single parent, managing it for his mother who has Stage IV cancer.  M's son is a creative 5 year old boy.  The child is often playing with his miniature RV park and is often near his father helping around the RV park; whether it is collecting rent, or trying to figure out how to get rid of "The Hacker" (computer hacker).  At one point several years ago the two gathered firewood for me. 

When the wildfires tore through Bastrop less than a year ago it took C's RV and several of the building structures of this RV park in Bastrop.  Just recently I stopped at the RV park to catch up with M and it was my first time to visit since the fire.  M gave me a tour of how the fire had damaged all the infrastructure.  The fire reached 3,000 degrees under ground!  I had not even considered this and it was a foreign concept to me.  As a result all the infrastructure underground burned and needs to be replaced, electrical and water, etc. FEMA did provide some funds to cover some of the cost to rebuild.  There are some trees which survived the fire.  It was amazing to see a live tree less than 3 feet from several trees that were completely burned.  Some of the residents have returned.  The park is currently operating on about half of where it wants to be in the near future.  (25 out of 44 residents, or there about)

C lived in hotels in Austin as long as FEMA would allow him and then moved in the house with M and his 5 year old son.  During my recent visit to the RV park M shared how one night C got drunk while living in the house.  C fired off a round of his pistol in the house.  The round went through the living room wall and stopped when it hit a door knob in the bathroom.  Some time later, I have no idea how much time passed, C got drunk again and was upset with one of the residents.  C chased the resident through the park and fired off several rounds of his pistol at various places in the park.  At some point he evidently shot out one of the park lights.  Law enforcement was called by several of the residents and C spent several nights in jail on a misdemeanor charge.  C now lives with his elderly mother and to my knowledge still has not found work.  At one point C had a permit and had worked previously as a security guard, but after this type of incident it is doubtful he will be able to work in this field any time soon.  In our last conversation C said he had been trying to get his Commercial Driver's License, and again I speculate he may have trouble getting this type of license with a misdemeanor of this nature. 

The story pains me in that C has never been able to find work.  C and I talked at one point about both getting a job at Walmart, but neither of us did.  I provided C several job leads, but he never followed up on them.  It also pains me that these two men have been friends, close friends, for so long and currently are not, with good reason.  I am concerned about C, but also realize there is nothing I can do to help him.  For the past several months he has not been returning my phone calls.