On April 2, 2014, Quavaugntay Tyler fired a shot from his 9mm Ruger gun into his hand while two females who suspected him of cheating confronted him in Bowman Hall parking lot.
Ten years later, those on campus during the shooting or later reporting the incident reflected on their experiences and what people can learn from it.
Tricia Knoles, police sergeant with the Kent State University Police Service, said the shooting occurred because two of Tyler’s girlfriends decided to confront him in the parking lot.
During the confrontation, Tyler reached into his car to pull his gun out, but had his hand on the trigger while pulling the gun backwards, she said.
“He accidentally squeezed [the trigger] and shot himself in the hand, so that’s where the blood was from,” Knoles said.
When the gun went off, it prompted the two girls to run away and Tyler to take off running towards the Business Administration Building, she said.
Tyler changed direction and ran to Johnson Hall, where a third girlfriend of Tyler lived, as he intended to give her the gun to hide, Knoles said.
Following this, Tyler called another one of his girlfriends to drive him to University Hospital Portage Medical Center, at the time Robinson Memorial Hospital, where he was eventually arrested, she said.
Knoles said she initially took the day off to celebrate her birthday when she received a call to report to the scene of the crime to work on evacuation protocol.
Evacuation protocol included locating the suspect, searching and clearing the building while aiding with the evacuation of staff and students from buildings like the Business Administration Building, Knoles said.
“People were inside the business building for hours because, although the ‘shooting’ happened by the Bowman Hall parking lot,” she said, “the call stated that the guy was running towards the business building and went inside the business building.”
Since individuals were locked inside the building for hours, they invented the Go-Bucket, a bucket filled with granola bars and toilet paper, Knoles said.
“The professors were the first to say, ‘Hey, we need to make some kind of a bucket because we were in that classroom for four plus hours,’” she said.
Madeleine Winer, senior account executive at Dix & Eaton, said at the time of the incident she was the Daily Kent Stater’s news editor and took a nap in her apartment as she was still jet-lagged from a study abroad in Estonia.
“First I saw the Flash ALERTS and there were quite a few on my phone and I was like ‘Oh my god. I got to call the newsroom to be sure they’re okay,’” Winer said.
After checking to see if everyone in the newsroom was alright, Winer offered to help with the coverage of the shooting, she said.
“I just felt, as a journalist, I wanted to help [in] any way I could to spread whatever messages [needed] to be communicated to students and things like that,” Winer said.
Helping with the coverage of the shooting included interviewing a few individuals over the phone who were near Bowman Hall during the shooting and being aware of their emotions, she said.
“I do remember that tonight when talking to people … because I interviewed a couple people over the phone,” Winer said. “Just being like, ‘Well, glad you’re safe, thanks so much for sharing this with us.’”
From aiding in the coverage of the shooting, Winer said she was able to learn how to employ empathy when covering breaking news stories like shootings.
“When covering [breaking news], you have to balance when you’re talking to people getting the information you need,” she said. “But also being empathetic to their situation and saying just being human, ‘Sorry, [for] what [you’ve] gone through,’ and things like that.”
Knoles said to learn from this incident as to what steps should be taken during an active shooter situation, students should consider taking ALICE training.
“[It’s] very easy to go on and sign up for ALICE training and it’s about an hour-long training now,” she said.
Even if students were previously trained with ALICE in their high schools before attending the university, Knoles said she still recommends them to complete the training again.
“I would encourage you to take it again just because we tailor it to Kent State specific,” she said.
Adriana Gasiewski is a beat reporter. Contact her at [email protected].
