Feature

Here it is, the draft of the feature article. It needs more people for quotes, but Leidhra gave me awesome ones. Just...need other viewpoints, too. Unfortunately, I didn't really realize QUITE what I wanted to write about until I had started, and two of my interviewees never got back to me. Regardless, this is a pretty good start to an article. I think all I need is to add some things, and I should be solid gold.


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Columbine. Footage from overhead of students running out of a building. Shooter Dylan Klebold holding a TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun.

Virginia Tech. A still image of Sueng-Hui Cho holding two handguns to the camera, wearing a combat vest and a hat backwards. The candlelight vigil held to mourn those taken before their time.

There seem to be certain images that people remember from school shootings. Whether it be the perpetrators themselves, students who made daring escapes or images of the aftermath, the events stay in people’s minds for long after they have happened.

On Oct. 21, more images were burned into the minds of Americans as national news broke of the murder of Scott Hawkins, a student at Sacramento State University. Hawkins’ suitemate, Quran Jones, beat him to death with a baseball bat, and then charged campus police with a kitchen knife. Jones was shot three times. Both were rushed to the hospital.

The first photos, taken by Adalto Nascimento, an editor for Sac State’s newspaper, were quickly sent out over the wire via Associated Press. They showed Hawkins’ near-lifeless body being wheeled out on a stretcher. Other photographs soon followed, showing police investigating and students milling about in front of the dormitory.

However, the pictures are only half of the story. The other half is the actual coverage of the event, provided by journalists working around the clock.

Nascimento may have been the first from Sac State’s State Hornet newspaper on the scene, but he was by no means the last.

Soon, reporters were swarming the campus, trying to pry information from police investigators and from school faculty. Many of the reporters on the scene were students, but local news stations and newspapers quickly followed.

Leidhra Johnson, the news editor for the State Hornet, tried to manage reporters rushing in and out of the newsroom.

“As the news editor for the Hornet, covering the shooting was a very surreal experience,” she said. “It was challenging to manage reporters during such chaos. The hardest part was telling them to go out and pry for information while covering such a sensitive topic. For most of the staff, including myself, this was our first time covering such an awful incident. But everyone came together and did a really great job to get the information we needed. We made endless phone calls, spoke with cops and even sent people to the hospital to get statements. We were relentless, which seems weird, but I guess in a way that's what it takes to be a journalist.”

While information was scarce the day of the homicide, information began coming to light the next day.

“The newsroom was a weird combination of chaotic and calm all at the same time,” Johnson said. “I know this doesn't sound logical, but it's true. We were running around like crazy people trying to get the info, yet we were exhausted. We were beyond exhausted. We had couches set up for people to take naps on if needed. Some of us were there all day and night, so the couches were definitely a necessity. Although, most of us couldn't sleep even if we tried.”

While the newspapers normally meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the day after the incident was a Wednesday. Many of the journalists met in the newsroom to plan stories and how to gather information. Walls were covered with poster paper, detailing who was doing what, when updates were expected, what information the budding journalists still needed to get.

Soon, the journalists were able to paint a picture of what could have happened. An interview with another of the suitemates was captured on video by the reporters. Jones’ father was interviewed, as well as Hawkins’ mother. Press conferences were covered. From this, it is believed that Jones, who was looking to have a spiritual experience, tried using the drug Dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, similar to LSD. Judging from a note found in his trash bin, he may have been suicidal. These combined led him to kill his suitemate, Hawkins, when he entered the room, unaware of what was happening to Jones. Although Sac State’s news team has visited the hospital Jones is recovering in, Jones has yet to make any public statement on what has happened.

The pictures of the event entered the collective psyche of not just the university, but the nation.

“I will always think of the pictures and video we got from the day of the incident,” Johnson said. “Of course the photos by Adalto Nascimento will always be vivid in my mind. He was one of the first on the scene and got pictures of Scott Hawkins being carried away on a stretcher. The blood and lifelessness of the body were all too clear in the pictures. These pictures have literally cause nightmares for me.”

The pictures are not the only form of media that were captured, however. Where other school incidents, such as Columbine and Virginia Tech, were captured on security and CCTV feeds, the videos from Sac State’s incident were all taken by reporters, both students and professionals.

“The videos will also haunt me,” Johnson said. “One video in particular was an interview with one of the roommates. At the end of the video, you see it finally hit him. His roommate was killed by his other roommate. In the beginning of the interview, he seemed pretty casual, but in the end, he realizes how awful this event it, and we caught this realization on camera. That will always sick out in my mind, and I think it will stick out to others as well.”

While the homicide and subsequent shooting may be beginning to fade from the public mind, it will stick with the students, Johnson said.

“What do I think people will remember about the shooting? That's a tough one. Unfortunately, I don't know how many people really even think about the shooting. Of course the students that lived in the resident halls at the time will remember it. It wasn't only tragic, but it was also a violation of their comfort within their own temporary homes. I don't know if they will ever feel comfortable again. It's hard to say. As for the student journalists involved in this case, I know we will all remember it. A student was killed. A student was beaten to death by his roommate. Such a senseless death will hunt most of us for years to come, if not forever.”