The scene midday on Friday looked like something out of a Hollywood motion picture — an almost surreal chain of violent, potentially deadly, events unfolding in broad daylight.

A masked gunman robs a bank and gets into a shootout with police as he exits the bank. An employee at a nearby restaurant spots the gunman headed to the bank with a mask and alerts sheriff’s deputies eating at the restaurant.

One deputy is shot in the leg and the alleged bank robber is shot and eventually captured a short distance away.

Gunfire ringing out in the heart of a retail business district in our community is certainly not the norm, fortunately.

Such instances, however, illustrate some important things about our community.

First, the rarity of such criminal activity occurring in our community means that by and large we’re in a safe corner of the world.

Imagine how awful it would be to live in a place in which such an instance is just a commonplace occurrence?

This instance also illustrates the importance of having law-abiding citizens unafraid to get involved.

From the KFC employee who spotted the suspicious behavior to the Natchez Ford employee who tracked the wounded suspect and waited with him until police arrived, citizens helped law enforcement last week.

We as citizens must not be afraid to stand up against criminals and drive them from our community. Part of that process includes having citizens hold our own judicial system accountable for locking up violent criminals for a long, long time.

We hope and pray that if found guilty, such behavior does not go unpunished. Many lives were at stake on Friday afternoon and that should not be ignored by the judicial system.