Bringing our ‘Kids’ Home

It was a very somber scene at the Roseburg Municipal Airport last Friday around 4 PM as two Black Hawk helicopters touched down gently carrying their tragic cargo; the bodies of the slain students and teacher from last Thursday’s murderous rampage at Umpqua Community College. Members of the Oregon National Guard, State Police, and Douglas County Sheriff’s office were all present, serving in the capacity of honor guard as one-by-one all nine were brought home. Many heads were bowed as the solemn task was carried out.  Under Oregon’s Mass Casualty Incident statute, any time there are more than six deaths in one incident, the identification and release of information falls under the jurisdiction of the State Medical Examiner’s Office. For purposes of identification and forensic evidence collection, the victims’ bodies were removed from the crime scene at UCC and taken to the M.E.’s office in Clackamas, Oregon 175 miles away. In the meantime, that Thursday, parents and family members of the missing students were kept in agonizing suspense. One such parent was Justin Anspach, Engineer for Fire District 2. Anspach’s close friend and co-worker Chuck was at the scene and asked us (Beacon staff) if we could help find out if Justin’s son is still “in there”, referring to the barricaded UCC Campus; “His dad is frantic and can’t get ahold of him!” The Anspach family would not receive the dreaded confirmation until nearly 7:00 pm that night, more than eight hours after the attack began. The question that lingered throughout that surreal day was; “Why can’t we get the names of the shooter and his victims?” After all, the killer was “neutralized” within minutes of his opening fire on his classmates and teacher. Every media outlet from throughout the nation and the world was on scene, looking for any facts to file in their next report. The families merely needed to know! Douglas County Commissioner Chris Boice told the Beacon that the reason for the delay was some heretofore unknown bureaucracy imbedded in the Mass Casualty Incident law, which nobody until now had ever heard of. Finally after many agonizing hours, Commissioners Chris Boice and Tim Freeman working with Sheriff Hanlin, put pressure on the Governor’s staff to release the Sheriff from the statute requirements which could have meant 24-48 hours before the State M.E. would release the names.  The Governor’s staff would not budge stating that by law they could not release local officials from the provisions of the law but “we can’t stop you”. Within the next hour all the families were finally notified. Then the nightmare became reality.