Okay, Here's What Happened

On Monday, April 2nd, I arrived at my French class and some dude was talking about how some people had been shot in one of the Architecture buildings that morning. I was like, "WHAT?" but then class started and no one really knew what was going on.

As I left class, I turned my phone on and there was a message from Pickolas all, "Um...call me back NOW please because I was just watching CNN and two people were shot at YOUR SCHOOL and I'm kind of freaked out." So I called him back and he didn't know much more than I did and I thought it was weird that I was on campus and no one knew anything. So I went home to watch the news.

What happened is this: a 26 year-old researcher named Rebecca Griego was shot by her ex-boyfriend, who then shot himself. This took place at around 10am Monday morning in Gould Hall, which is home to the Urban Planning and Architecture Departments (Architecture also has another building on campus too, but this is the one with all of the workshops and stuff). Rebecca, a graduate of the University of Washington, worked on the fourth floor of Gould Hall doing real estate research. Nobody really knows how the guy got in there or what happened before he fired six shots (killing Rebecca and himself in the process), but there were around 200 other people in the building at the time, some of whom didn't even notice the gunshots because loud noises issue from the workshops there all day long, while others recognized the sounds and ran and hid in classrooms and offices, barricading themselves in until the police came and told them it was safe to evacuate. The building was closed for the rest of the day, but nothing else on campus was closed. Everyone just went about their days as usual, many of us not having any idea that anything happened until much later.

Rebecca's ex-boyfriend was kind of psycho, we've come to find out. He was 41 years old and he was not happy about their separation. He had begun threatening Rebecca and her sister (and their dogs) routinely over the past months and would write notes to them that said things like, "You won't be able to find me, but I know where you are. Keep looking over your shoulder." Rebecca, naturally, filed an order of protection with the Seattle Police Department in late March. Here's the fucked up part (as if the rest of this isn't completely fucked up): the order of protection was never officially filed because they couldn't FIND the ex-boyfriend in order to serve him the paperwork. That's because he gave a FAKE ADDRESS.

Rebecca's coworkers knew about this guy and how he was scary and was stalking her and how he was probably dangerous. So they did what they should have: they posted Rebecca's photo and the ex-boyfriend's photo all over Gould Hall with notes that made it clear that he was dangerous and, if at all possible, he needed to be kept away from her. That was about all they could do, really. And it obviously didn't work.

Now that the investigation is in full swing, police have discovered that the ex-boyfriend had documents like passports and identification cards in multiple different names. Oh, and the gun wasn't registered to him; he stole it.

The response at school has been...weird. I was very disappointed with the first response by the president of our school, Mark Emmert. He was out of the country when he heard about the shooting, and he wrote an email to the entire university community the next morning that said things like, (I'm paraphrasing here), "These kinds of tragedies happen all the time all around us, and in a university as big as ours, it was bound to happen here sooner or later." That sounds terrible, I know, and it wasn't that bad the way he put it, but it was close. He wrote another letter a few days later that was, thankfully, much more compassionate.

As far as the students are concerned, responses were mixed, and a little hesitant. I think everyone was sad (I mean, who wouldn't be?), but some were more outraged than others. The main issue for those of us who were outraged was that safety on our campus is severely lacking if this kind of thing can happen. This happens all the time in the world and we should at least feel safe in our classrooms and offices and among other students, teachers, and coworkers. Something in the system has to catch the bullshit that falls through the cracks and leads to things like this happening. Rebecca did everything she was supposed to do: she ended her relationship with the psycho, she cut off communication with him, he kept communicating so she tried to get an order of protection, she notified friends, family, and coworkers about what was going on and they all kept an eye out for him in order to help. But that wasn't enough and that's fucking awful. And scary as hell.

Wanna' know the craziest coincidence of all? It's SARVA week at the UW. SARVA stands for Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence Awareness. Every year, for a week, the UW has panel discussions, rallies, a Take Back the Night event, and activities that draw attention to the realities of relationship violence. So this year's SARVA efforts got kicked off in a most horrific way, but it did bring the message home, and there were many panel discussions and vigils added and dedicated to Rebecca's memory.

I think what happened is terrible, but more than that, it's unacceptable. I hope Rebecca's family and friends are doing okay and will forgive the world for not protecting their daughter/sister/friend. All we can do now is renew our efforts to protect the people we care about, and try to somehow turn this tragedy into something positive for our community.