BRAZOS COUNTY, Texas — Picture this: you’re heading down to the local cafe, for a cup of black coffee and plate of eggs and bacon. On the way in, you snag the local paper.
Or, after a long day of work, you head inside, kick off your boots, sit on the couch and begin to indulge in the day’s local news.
No matter the day or time, all of the big headlines have one thing in common recently: violence.
Whether it’s on the other side of the globe in Ukraine, or down the interstate in any big Texas city, it’s a problem leaking into our everyday lives.
Domestic violence seems to be more prevalent these days, and the Brazos Valley is no stranger to the problem.
“He told me how much he loved me, not knowing it would be his last time seeing me,” said a grieving mother, who lost her son to gun violence.
Dispatch in Bryan never has a dull day, as they answer calls and provide help to residents who need it.
”Anytime you have a bigger population, you're going to of course have more crime,” said Kole Taylor with the Bryan Police Department.
It’s hard to ignore the death and devastation coming from places like Killeen, Waco, Houston, you know, the bigger metros.
“It's no shock, nobody's trying to hide it,” Taylor said. “A big national headline has been gun violence.”
Crime after crime, shooting after shooting, families are losing loved ones and more people are becoming statistics.
Recently, a DPS trooper shot and killed a College Station man who refused to cooperate with authorities.
After law enforcement searched his property, they found two additional bodies
While this was a big event for the smaller Texas town, it was a rare one, according to College Station Police.
The department only investigates around three murders a year.
“We're looking at fortunately, very low numbers as a percentage of our population,” Tristen Lopez, with the department explained.
While domestic violence may not be front and center for these towns, theft seems to become a bigger and bigger problem.
It’s a crime, Lopez explained, that could lead to more serious situations.
“Never leave unsecured firearms where criminals could gain access to those,” he said. “Those firearms could end up being used in other crimes.”
Since the beginning of 2022, there’s been over a hundred firearm thefts reported in the college town.
“It’s just a poor recipe,” said Lopez.
But for the two big cities, authorities say, it’s relatively safe, but it is important to remain vigilant.
“If you think that something's off, there's a good chance that there's probably something that you should be kind of paying attention to,” Kole explained.
