The Eagle recently reported on Center Township family members who were having fun in a Green Bay, Wis., restaurant after the Pittsburgh Predators hockey team was celebrating a major victory.

Their celebrations were disrupted by the sound of gunfire. On May 1, around 7:30 p.m., a former employee of the Oneida Casino in Green Bay, part of a large complex that includes the hotel, a convention center as well as the restaurant they were inside, entered the complex and opened fire, killing two people and wounding another.

Where were the security, or police, to intervene? What could have been done to stop the killing?

“He was targeting a specific victim who was not there, but he decided to still shoot some of the victim’s friends or coworkers, it appears,” said Brown County Sheriff Lt. Kevin Pawlak during a news conference on May 2.

Authorities engaged and exchanged gunfire with the shooter, which led to his death. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Because they were afraid of how close the gunman could be to the restaurant door, a family member broke open a window to get everyone to safety, which led to injuries, but none life-threatening.

Thank goodness for that.

But these times are frightening. From mall shootings to random killings — in New York’s Time Square recently, two women and a 4-year-old girl were gunfire victims — to a shooting at a Colorado party, violence, unfortunately, it seems, has become part of our culture.

How much undercover police presence can we use? A lot more of it, if you ask the victims. Especially with large gatherings and in public places.

The safest cities, we are convinced, are those with constant patrols and plenty of street-monitoring cameras. The same can be applied to public gatherings, and more undercover police should be used at the events.

The watchful eyes of the police may be the only thing separating us from injury, or death, and may grant plenty of us peace of mind.

— AA