Ari(Shooting)Zona: The effect of the recent shooting at the University of Arizona on the East community

She’d just missed the swarm of police officers. College sophomore and East alum Libby Brouillette passed the John W. Harshbarger Building at the University of Arizona on her way to English less than 30 minutes before it was plastered in caution tape.

“I remember walking out and the whole area was taped off,” Brouillette said.

A professor of the University of Arizona was shot and killed on campus Wednesday Oct. 5, according to university police, which has affected several East families as 17 East graduates have attended the school in the past three years.

Parent and teacher Melinda DiGirolamo — whose son attends Arizona — heard from  the Tucson News that the shooter was a graduate student who was restricted from campus.

“He had a history of violence,” DiGirolamo said. “I believe he had a [campus] restraining order and that’s what alerted everyone [because] they saw this guy who wasn’t supposed to be there.”  

“A campus exclusionary order had been filled out to ban Dervish [the shooter], but it had not yet been served because police could not locate him,” according to The Washington Post.

The police then received another call that there had been a shooting in the John W. Harshbarger Building, before they were told the suspect ran out of the building’s main entrance at 2:07 p.m. 

Sitting in her classroom, Brouillette overheard her classmates talk briefly about a shooting that had just occurred in a building near-by  — the John W. Harshbarger Building. Even with the UAlert system where the school sent out updates via email, students still couldn’t fully understand the full depth of the situation, according to Brouillette. Her professor hadn’t checked his computer either, and DiGirolamo said there was never a lockdown so few knew a shooting had just occurred. It wasn’t until after the shooting that remaining classes were canceled for the day.

“Once I found out the professor ended up dying, that got to me and made me realize it was a big problem,” Brouillette said.

It wasn’t until she returned to her sorority minutes later that she started to get texts from friends and messages in her sorority GroupMe telling her to stay inside. Her phone and thousands of others were flooded with multiple UAlerts with brief information following the shooting.

One of the thousands was DiGirolamo’s husband, who received the UAlert email that told him nothing about the location of the shooting, worrying DiGirolamo for the safety of their son. Digirolamo said she didn’t receive the text from her husband until around 4:20 p.m., causing her to frantically text her son to make sure he was safe.

“Parents and students had no idea what was going on,” DiGirolamo said. “It was really scary because the situation seemed not secure with an active shooter and threat.” 

When the university didn’t cancel any classes the following day, students and teachers were extremely upset and confused. They deserved at least a day to reflect on the traumatic experience, according to Brouillette.

“They didn’t cancel class the next day which is kind of ridiculous,” said Brouillette “So a lot of students and professors were upset about that. I think it opened up the doors to the kind of threats professors face.”

The tragedy is also affecting prospective students at UA from East. Senior Georgia McKee considered UA briefly and said that if she were still considering the college, the shooting would definitely make her reconsider her choice.

“The shooting really scared me because when considering colleges people want to know if they will be safe especially when they are so far from home,” McKee said. “Knowing that has happened makes it really nerve wracking for someone who may still be considering the school.” 

Brouillette doesn’t blame McKee for her hesitance as she realizes the safety at the University of Arizona is different then at other schools.

“The shooting made me pay more attention to the differences of this environment compared to other colleges,” Brouillette said. “To some extent it did make me rethink my college choice.”

In response to the shooting the university published a statement on the website allowing for reflection time on the loss of the teacher, Tom Meixer. They also offered support and counseling services for anyone in need, along with a number for people to reach out to.