Space, time and speed are relative terms. It doesn’t take an Einstein to see this truth.

Pro golfer Mike Dobbyn once drove a golf ball 551 yards. That’s a trajectory of nearly one-third mile — a mind-boggling flight from a golfer’s perspective, but a mere fraction of the distance a bullet can fly from the barrel of a gun. It’s why golf and gun ranges both are situated outside of town.

There’s not much more than a third of a mile of space separating the scene of Thursday morning’s homicide on Wick Street from the Broad Street Elementary School building, now the temporary home of Summit Township Elementary in the midst of the lead water scandal that forced Butler School Board to close Summit and relocate pupils and teachers to Broad Street for the rest of the school year.

Now, apparently there’s a different kind of lead to worry about: this kind doesn’t come out of a tap or water fountain. It comes out of a gun.

Butler police were continuing their search this morning for 19-year-old David J. “Dae Dae” Franklin of Brackenridge, Allegheny County, who is wanted in the shooting homicide of Rashaan Khalil “Smoke” Adams.

Adams was shot once in the chest and twice in the head. Butler County Coroner William Young III called the chest shot a “contact wound,” fired with the gun pressed close.

It’s most likely that “Dae Dae” is long gone, fled the city, fled the county, maybe even fled the state. But there’s no knowing for sure unless and until the suspect is in custody.

However, until he’s caught, a fretful community awaits news of developments in this case, and none wait more anxiously than the parents of Summit Elementary children.

These same parents did not ask for the string of unfortunate and preventable events that led to their children’s relocation to Broad Street, and which also precipitated the resignations to three top executives in the school district and a continuing criminal investigation.

There have been ardent and sincere efforts to provide a secure, healthy learning environment for all the children of Butler School District. Still, we can’t help but weigh the comparative risks of lead in the water at summit and lead in the air with criminal gunplay, no matter how sporadic, in the city. That goes for children at Emily Brittain School nearby, too.

A push has been made by volunteers to begin community watch programs in Butler. Such programs could be crucial in tipping the tide against the influx of drugs and related crime.

For anyone wavering over the decision to get involved, now is the time to do so. Maybe some Summit Township parents should consider getting involved too. They certainly have a stake in the outcome.

We must stand up to the drug dealers. No alternative course action leads to any positive outcome.