For it is the God who said, βLet light shine out of darkness,β who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. β 2 Corinthians 4:6
On the afternoon of June 5, 2014, a young man with a shotgun assaulted students outside and inside ΒιΆΉΣ³Ορ’s Otto Miller Hall. The gunman, who had no connection to SPU, injured three students before Jon Meis, a senior electrical engineering major, disarmed him. Other students helped hold the man down, and students and SPU security officers assisted the victims until the ΒιΆΉΣ³Ορ police arrived a few minutes later.
The injured students were rushed to Harborview Medical Center. Thomas Fowler, a senior physics major, and Sarah Williams, a sophomore sociology major, were treated and eventually released from the hospital. Another student, Paul Lee, a 19-year-old freshman from Beaverton, Oregon, died that day.
By the time campus lockdown was lifted, around 5 p.m., students, faculty, and staff had begun to gather in small groups to pray and care for those around them. At a 7 p.m. prayer service in First Free Methodist Church, the SPU community began a journey together through grief, hope, and the promise of healing.
