A Mass Shooting and The Birth of a Book
Hiding inside a bathroom of a hotel suite with several of her sorority sisters, my daughter called me in a panic on the night of May 23, 2014. Earlier that day, they had piled into a stretch limousine and left their sorority house headed to Las Vegas. Shortly after departing, Elliot Rodger knocked on the door of Alpha Phi.
A friend of my daughter hurried down the stairs and towards the door ready to open it. Elliot’s forceful and insistent pounding, however, made her hesitate and turn back.
Denied entry, Elliot waited out on the lawn and fired his gun at three approaching female students, killing two. Next, he drove to a nearby deli where he gunned down a male student, then sped through crowded streets shooting pedestrians and striking others with his car. He exchanged gunfire with police receiving a gunshot to the hip. The rampage ended when Elliot’s car crashed into a parked vehicle where he was found dead from a self-inflicted shot to the head.
As I listened to my daughter chronicle the event, my whole being shuddered with horror and frustration. How much more innocent blood must be spilled, I asked myself, until we finally wake up?
“Americans,” said poet Breyten Breytenbach, “have mastered the art of living with the unacceptable.”
