That was two years ago.

They were just kids, playing with guns, on the city’s South Side.

It was less than a week ago, this time farther east in the Carondelet neighborhood.

One of them had a new revolver. He pointed it away and pulled the trigger. Click.

She pointed it at him. Click.

He pointed one more time, at her. The bullet struck Katlyn Alix in the chest.

The 24-year-old member of the St. Louis Police Department died.

Her fellow police officer, Nathaniel Hendren, 29, has been charged in her death.

They were just kids, playing with guns.

Alix was a little younger than my daughter was when she graduated from the police academy. They even look a little alike. My daughter is a sergeant now, who supervises young police officers, and surely would not approve of such behavior.

“What were they thinking?” she texted me.

Perhaps they weren’t thinking at all.