Everett Daily Herald, October 31, 2014

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Last port of call The USS Ingraham, ready to be decomissioned, makes a final stop in Everett, A3 FRIDAY, 10.31.2014

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MARYSVILLE PILCHUCK SHOOTING

Calm, precision amid chaos Police training kicked in during the response to shootings at Marysville Pilchuck High, emergency radio traffic shows. By Rikki King, Noah Haglund and Scott North Herald Writers

MARYSVILLE — Within moments of the gunfire, a police officer reached the cafeteria at Marysville Pilchuck High School. His initial assessment: Two

victims breathing and alive. Shooter dead. Three others also apparently gone. For hours afterward, officers conducted a thorough sweep of the sprawling school grounds, providing an armed escort off campus while making sure there was no additional danger.

Police emergency radio traffic from the first few hours was released Thursday to the media under state public records laws. Recordings of the 911 calls, along with the radio traffic for firefighters and paramedics, have not yet been made public. The officers are calm and precise. In the midst of the confusion, they were clearing buildings and moving students to safety just as they had practiced.

One of the first officers on scene only knew the high school was being evacuated for a fire alarm, according to the recordings. The dispatchers asked his location. The officer responded: “M.P.” — local shorthand for Marysville Pilchuck. A shooting has been reported in one of the school’s cafeterias, the dispatcher told the officer. Moments later: “It is confirmed

we have a shooter. We have five down.” Then: “Shooter is DOA. We have got apparently four (victims.)” Then: “Four down. One deceased.” Many of the transmissions were followed by seconds of silence broken only by beeping radio tones that alerted officers to keep off the air because an emergency See POLICE, Page A2

Memorial at MPHS grows

DAN BATES / THE HERALD

A poster made with photos of the six Marysville Pilchuck High School students involved in the Oct. 24 shootings hangs with other memorials on the fence at the edge of the school grounds.

Stories best shared only Firearms-safety bill when families are ready could get another look T

INSIDE

Business . . . . . A9 Calendar . . . . D3 Classified . . . . B1

Comics . . . . . . D4 Crossword . . . D4 Dear Abby . . . D5

Horoscope . . . E6 Lottery . . . . . . A2 Obituaries . . . A7

By Jerry Cornfield Herald Writer

OLYMPIA — The deadly shooting at Marysville Pilchuck High School is unlikely to change the course of next week’s vote on two gun-related initiatives, but it will spawn a renewed effort to enact a firearms-safety law next year. State Rep. Ruth Kagi, D-Seattle, whose district includes parts of south Snohomish County, for two years has sponsored a bill that would require that guns be safely stored, making it a crime if a person stores or leaves a loaded firearm in a place where a child under 16 could get it. It didn’t get out of committee in 2013 and didn’t get a hearing in 2014. She said Wednesday she’ll try again in 2015. The

Opinion . . . . A11 Sports . . . . . . C1 Short Takes . . D6

The Buzz will return Saturday.

Legislature convenes in January. She introduced it because of a series of accidental child deaths and adolescent suicides in Washington involving guns. She thinks loss of life could be reduced with a safe-storage law. “When I reintroduce it next session, I think the issue in Marysville will clearly add a dimension because a 15-year-old boy was able to access a gun and do tremendous harm,” she said. “If that gun had been safely stored in a lockbox, maybe this tragedy would not have happened.” Investigators have not released details of how the legally purchased and registered .40-caliber Beretta was kept, and how shooter Jaylen Fryberg obtained it. See LAW, Page A10

Spooky 55/52, C6

DAILY

he questions are I started to write here out there: Some that the answer is simple, readers have wonand that we will write dered or speculated why those stories when families The Herald has not yet are ready to share their published more about the loved ones’ lives. That is Marysville Pilchuck High mostly true — but nothSchool shooting victims. ing about this tragedy is That debate arose simple. Wednesday in comments As we learned after 43 JULIE MUHLSTEIN posted on a blog by Neal people died in the March Pattison, our executive editor. 22 Oso mudslide, loved ones devastated One commenter said: “I would like to by loss want and need privacy. know as much about the victims as I do There is no right or wrong for a grieving about the shooter. Maybe a nice article person. telling us who these great people are is One parent, grandparent or sibling in order.” Another replied, “Perhaps the might want, soon after a loss, to share paper is showing some respect for the forever grieving families of the victims.” See MUHLSTEIN, back page, this section

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VOL. 114, NO. 263 © 2014 THE DAILY HERALD CO.

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