Streets of New York. Mark Anthony

      “I still don’t get the whole reason behind you tattooing the snake eyes on you,” I replied.

      “Well it’s basically like this, nobody knows how to get back at a snake better than a snake. So niggas might get close to me and then later try to get over on me and snake me but it’s like my snake eyes tattoo is letting niggas know that I can be a snake too. If they try to snake me, I’ll come right back at them and snake they ass right back!”

      After that long drawn out explanation of her tattoo, I sarcastically asked Marissa, “So is there a point to why the hell you brought that up?”

      Marissa playfully punched me as she said, “Yeah there’s a point to what I’m getting at... What I’m trying to say is that your boy, Squeeze, is gonna try to snake you so you better be prepared to strike back.”

      “Yeah, I know that. You right. I don’t trust that nigga no more. Especially the way his ass was coming across all sheisty.”

      Later that night after Marissa and I had had sex, she fell asleep but I stayed up and watched music videos. It had to be about four o’clock in the morning when I heard some noise outside that sounded like an army of footsteps.

      The only light that was on inside the house was the light coming from the television in Marissa’s room. I immediately turned off the TV, went downstairs, ducked and crawled to the living room window. I peeked from behind the burgundy vertical blinds.

      “Oh shit!” I said to myself. “Muthafucka!”

      Marissa’s front yard was crawling with cops who were more than likely about to raid her house in an attempt to capture my ass! I darted back upstairs to Marissa’s second floor bedroom and violently shook her awake.

      “Get the fuck up, Marissa! Five-O is rolling on me right now!”

      Thank God Marissa immediately woke up. She was somewhat in a daze but she came to her senses very quickly. As I grabbed the handgun, my heart was pounding a thousand beats a minute. “Hurry up and run downstairs to the door. Try to stall them for like a minute!” I instructed Marissa.

      She quickly grabbed her robe and did exactly as I’d instructed. I paced back and forth as I quickly weighed my options. Fortunately for me, I had prepared for this situation many times. I had my escape route planned well in advance just in case the cops ever tried exactly what they were doing.

      My escape route was out the second floor window of the bedroom, which was right next to Marissa’s bedroom. The reason was that right underneath the bedroom window was a two-foot ledge that I’d be able to stand on and launch myself into the neighbor’s yard. That was assuming that I’d be able to clear the neighbor’s ten-foot fence in the process.

      My belief was that the cops might have Marissa’s yard filled with cops but not the neighbor’s yard. If I was able to make it into the neighbor’s yard with the big fence, then I would be able to buy myself about thirty seconds to a minute of lead time to get away on foot from the pigs.

      I stood at the top of Marissa’s steps gripping my gun and listened. I didn’t wanna just open up the window and jump out until I absolutely had to. Marissa opened the front door but she kept the metal screen door locked and that separated her from the police. Based on what the police were shouting, Marissa must have surprised the cops while simultaneously taking away their element of surprise.

      “Can I help you?” Marissa asked.

      “Philadelphia Police! Open the door right now!”

      “Is there a problem?”

      I could hear the sound of metal clanging that sounded like the cops were trying to pry open the front door.

      “You know why we’re here! This is your last warning! Step away from the door!”

      When Marissa asked the cops if they had a search warrant, I knew that the cops were not there simply to question people. They were coming in the house and there was no two ways about it!

      With the vertical blinds closed and all of the lights off in the house, I darted to the escape window and I made sure not to create too much movement at the window. I attempted to open the escape window. I realized that I had fucked up big time. Not once had I ever practiced opening the window. The unlocked window was stuck and it was not budging! I began panicking as I heard all kinds of noise and commotion coming from downstairs.

      “Get the fuck outta my house!” I heard Marissa yell.

      “Goddamn!” I thought to myself. I was beyond shook and didn’t know what to do or where to go.

      “Go!” I heard the cops yell. Seconds later, I heard them yell, “Clear!”

      I knew that they were checking room by room and I ran and hid in the closet. I could hear mad footsteps and mad noise. I felt like I was in a horror movie running from a nightmare. My heart was beating so fast that I thought the cops could hear it. I gripped the gun with both hands and hid behind the clothes hanging up in the closet. My legs and feet were fully exposed. If the cops were to open the closet, I would immediately be busted.

      “Clear!” the cops shouted from another room. They were definitely on the second floor of the house by now.

      I looked down and I could see light from a flashlight creeping underneath the closet door. I knew that the cops were now in the same room as me.

      “What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck?” I cursed to myself.

      I didn’t know if I should just let them open the door and hope that they wouldn’t see me but I knew that that was a long shot. The odds would be against me. I also wanted to bust out of the closet and run but that would have been an even longer shot.

      For some strange reason, I began thinking about my daughter Ashley. At that point something told me to grab the doorknob. And that is exactly what I did. I took my left hand from off of the gun and with it. I reached and grabbed hold of the door knob. As soon as I grabbed the knob I could feel the knob slowly being twisted.

      I knew that playtime was over and there was no time left to figure out what to do. I immediately put both of my hands back on the gun and stood off to an angle so that I was not right in front of the door. Although I was nervous as hell, I made sure not to make any noise. My heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. Before I knew what was what, the door violently swung open.

      “Mu’fucka!” I screamed, rapidly firing three shots.

      “Gun!” one of the cops yelled.

      I knew that one of the cops had got hit. I couldn’t tell if the other cops were shooting back or what. Maybe my shots were ricocheting off of the protective shields that some of the cops were carrying.

      My shots had caught the cops off guard and I had a split second to capitalize on that. As I yelled, I continued firing and bolted from the closet. When I was about three feet from the escape window, I closed my eyes and dove head first out the window, breaking the glass and everything.

      “Aw shit!” I yelled as glass shattered and shots rang out from what sounded like every direction.

      The advantage I had was that the cops didn’t want to get hit by their own friendly fire so they had to hold back somewhat as they fired at me. The craziness and boldness of me jumping out of the window was my other advantage.

      It was pitch black outside and I hoped and prayed that I would clear the neighbor’s ten-foot fence before I hit the ground. The move was mad risky on my part because I couldn’t see where I was going and I could have literally killed myself but I had no other options. I had to do what I had to do.

      In a matter of seconds, I came crashing down, face first into the neighbor’s garbage cans. The crash sound was tremendous! Glass rained down on top of me. The wind had been completely knocked out of me and pain shot through my body. I was going purely on adrenaline as I quickly made it to my feet. I stumbled a bit and tried to gather myself.

      Shots were being bust at me from what