Anxiety grows after Pullman shooting
WSU students more worried as incident occurs against backdrop of recent quadruple homicide in Moscow
A Washington State University alert went out to students at 3 a.m. Thursday.
And then another at 4:30 a.m.
“I was so confused when I received the calls but didn’t bother to answer or look if I got any messages,” said Daniel Gonzalez, a third-year student at WSU. “After I woke up later that day and looked at the news, I had a bunch of questions running through my head.”
Gonzalez attends WSU but resides in Moscow. After hearing about an officer-involved shooting near the WSU campus that took place Wednesday night into Thursday morning, he felt the same shock and panic as he did hearing about the Nov. 13 murder of four University of Idaho students, Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen.
“Hearing about the UI students was already crazy — I just thought ‘there’s a serial killer around here,’ ” Gonzalez said. “Now this? It just keeps getting worse.”
A man in his 30s was fatally shot by a member of the Whitman County Regional SWAT team after a standoff in his apartment late Wednesday night and into the early Thursday morning hours, according to a Pullman Police Department news release. Around 28 residents, 20 Washington State University student residents and eight nonstudent residents, were evacuated from the premises during the incident.
Cleofa Vargas, a fourth-year student at WSU, also expressed her concerns and changes in perspective after the incidents from the past month.
“Like most people, I considered Pullman a safe place. I would often find myself going on walks during the day and would feel safe going home at night after work and school,” Vargas said. “Now, not so much. I stopped going on walks or even going home late at night for the fear that something may happen and for my own safety.”
Vargas also addressed the UI investigation, emphasizing that because it’s continuing on to the last few weeks of the year, “it’s hard to act like things are normal or safe when they aren’t.”
“The longer the investigation takes to be solved, I think the fear in students and the community will just continue to grow. Students won’t want to come back if things continue to go how they are,” Vargas said. “Although it happened in Moscow, that is only about 10 miles away from Pullman.”
While the Pullman incident was concluded within hours of the WSU alert, it still leaves both UI and WSU students wary about their once “safe” towns as the investigation in Moscow continues into the holidays.
“Taking everything into consideration, I do think it would be best to go online for the semester,” Vargas said. “Or at least increase safety on both campuses, WSU and UI.”
Carrillo-Casas can be contacted at mcarrillo@dnews.com.
