2020 in hindsight

Lampasas police officer Josh Watson, left, and Russell Smith hug as Smith joined a march protesting the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd. Watson worked on traffic control during the march. Two local events in June that focused on Floyd and racial issues had “no incidents of any kind to include damage to property or violence,” Chief of Police Sammy Bailey said. FILE PHOTO

On Palm Sunday, Bobbie Hicks offers communion to his aunt, Orabeth Hicks, at Bend United Methodist Church. Stay-at-home orders lasted through Easter, prompting churches to offer drive-in and online services. Religious services were designated as essential in Texas, but parishioners in some other states faced months-long tensions with government over the right to assemble during the pandemic. FILE PHOTO

Shoppers flood the Walmart parking lot, waiting for the store to open one morning in March. Many businesses were ordered closed to in-person service in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, and shelves were wiped clean of items including toilet paper. FILE PHOTO

Family Nurse Practitioners Elizabeth Smith, in foreground, and Amanda Allen, in background, run COVID-19 tests for patients outside Family Medicine Clinic in March. FILE PHOTO

Lampasas High School held drive-through graduation in an effort to avoid large crowds and the spread of the coronavirus. Four siblings in a set of quintuplets graduated together. From left to right are Gavin Brown, Crystal Brown, Garrett Brown and Gabriel Brown. The fifth quintuplet was home-schooled. FILE PHOTO

Lampasas High School graduate John Andrew Rhoden died in the line of duty as a Bell County sheriff’s deputy in April. FILE PHOTO

In April, oil prices plunged so low that West Texas intermediate crude traded at a negative amount per barrel for the first time in recorded history. FILE PHOTO