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2 shot to death on U. Washington campus
2007-04-02
A University of Washington researcher was shot to death in her office Monday morning by a former boyfriend who then turned the gun on himself, police said. Officers responding to reports of gunfire found the two dead in an office on the fourth floor of Gould Hall, the university's architecture building, Assistant University Police Chief Ray Wittmier said. The 26-year-old woman was granted a restraining order last month against Jonathan Rowan, according to court documents. University police said he was not affiliated with the school. "I cannot find him but he can find me (knows my place of work)," the victim, identified by colleagues as Rebecca Griego, wrote in a restraining order petition filed against Rowan on March 6 in King County Superior Court. About six shots were fired, and a handgun was found in the room. There were no eyewitnesses, and no one else was harmed, Wittmier said. Lance Nguyen, who worked with Griego at the Runstad Center for Real Estate Research, said the victim had become increasingly worried about her former boyfriend in recent weeks. "She said it's a psycho from her past," Nguyen said. In the restraining order petition, Griego wrote that Rowan had threatened her and her sister, and said he had threatened suicide "because he couldn't see me." Campus police were not aware of the restraining order, Wittmier said. He also said he did not think the man had permission to carry a handgun on campus, where firearms are banned. Student Meghan Pinch, 27, was in a first-floor classroom when she heard several loud bangs. She said that she did not think they were gunshots at first but that police then told everyone to evacuate. "No one wanted to really think it was real," Pinch said as she waited outside to learn whether the victims were people she knew. "We all are pretty close in this building," she said. Gould Hall, built in 1972, houses three architecture department offices, a dean's office, a library, shop, lab, computer facilities and classrooms, according to the university's Web site. The building, in an urban neighborhood on the edge of the campus, was closed for the day, with classes rescheduled elsewhere on campus.
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