Securing Seattle

By Joel Magalnick · November 30, 1999

Photos

SEATTLE, Aug. 1 (JTA) —The sentiment in Seattle’s Jewish community is “keep calm, and reassess your security,” but Jews and Muslims are both shaky in the wake of last Friday’s fatal shooting at the city’s Jewish federation. Leaders of Jewish institutions in the city met Sunday afternoon with Seattle’s mayor and police chief at the Jewish Community Center, part of their scramble to determine the next steps for keeping synagogues and service agencies operating and secure. Beyond Seattle, the shooting rampage, which left one employee dead and five others wounded, has reverberated throughout the country. A new security alert was issued to Jewish institutions, instructing them to establish contact with local law enforcement officials and be vigilant about monitoring buildings and pedestrian traffic. Further, it brought close to home the violence flaring in the Middle East. The alleged gunman, identified by police as Naveed Afzal Haq, identified himself as an American Muslim upset about what was going on in Israel. At the meeting in Seattle, police officials promised an increased security presence at Jewish institutions, and said Jewish groups should have local police give them a security assessment. Counseling was also offered to employees at Jewish organizations, particularly those at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, where the attack took place. Officials said they did not know how long the federation building is expected to stay closed, pending a police investigation. Employees will be working at a different location in the meantime. In the aftermath of the shooting, the Harborview Trauma Center near downtown Seattle served as a de-facto Shabbat gathering place last Friday evening as Jews from around the city met to console each other. One area Conservative congregation canceled services for that evening, but most other synagogues were determined to hold Shabbat services — though with an added police presence. “You can’t let hatred stop holiness,” Rabbi Jonathan Singer of Reform Temple Beth Am told his congregation that night, according to the Seattle Times. Jews from around the city expressed disbelief and sorrow. “It was shocking,” said David Sabban, a former federation employee. “I remember when we would do our safety discussions there was always this scenario, if this guy came in with a gun and started shooting people, what would you do? It just happened so suddenly, in an instant.” Streets surrounding the federation’s office were closed for hours as police and Seattle’s SWAT team searched for a possible accomplice to Haq, 30, originally of Pasco, Wash., a small city about four hours from Seattle. Haq’s last known address was in Everett, another small city 20 miles north of Seattle, though he disappeared from his residence there about two weeks ago, the Seattle Times reported last Friday. Citing a statement of probable cause, The Associated Press reported that Haq had told a 911 dispatcher, “These are Jews and I’m tired of getting pushed around and our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East.” On Saturday, King County District Court Judge Barbara Linde set Haq’s bail at $50 million. The shooting began at approximately 4 p.m. last Friday, when a man suspected to be Haq took a teenage girl hostage, forced his way through the first-floor security door and walked upstairs to the federation reception desk, where he began his rampage. Pam Waechter, 58, the director of the federation’s community campaign, died at the scene. Waechter had worked in various capacities at the Seattle federation for nearly a decade, and at Seattle’s Jewish Family Service social service agency for seven years before that. She was also president of her congregation and a board member of the Union for Reform Judaism. Waechter was “really sort of a model for everybody else,” Sabban said. “Pam was one of the sweetest people I ever worked with. She was great at her job and just a really wonderful person.” On Monday, Waechter was buried after a funeral service attended by a standing-room only crowd of an estimated 1,300 people. The funeral, at Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue, drew individuals from across the local Jewish community as well as Muslims and Christians. Little reference was made to the way she died, but the officiating rabbi, James Mirel, said of the deceased: “Is it because of the tragic way she died that we speak of her in exalted terms?” No, he said, if she had lived a longer life, “those same sentiments” would have been expressed about her. The surviving victims are Christina Rexroad, 28, a bookkeeper; Layla Bush, 23, receptionist and office manager; and Cheryl Stumbo, 43, the federation’s director of marketing, all of whom were upgraded to serious condition Saturday. Carol Goldman, 35, a coordinator for the federation’s community campaign, and Dayna Klein, 37, the director of planned giving, were reported as being listed in satisfactory condition. Klein, who was shot in the arm, is credited with convincing Haq to speak to 911 operators, who persuaded the gunman to put down his weapon and surrender, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Another employee sustained minor injuries from jumping from her second-floor office into a dumpster in the alley behind the federation building. She was treated at the Starbucks a block away where federation employees who had escaped the shooting through a back door gathered and spoke with police. The blood of one of the shooting victims sat in a pool outside the coffee shop’s front door as police rolled out yellow tape to secure the area. Several Arab and Muslim groups condemned the crime. And Haq’s parents publicly apologized for their son’s actions. In their letter to Jewish groups, Mian and Nahida Haq said they don’t want the July 28 act to create any hatred between Jews and Muslims, a lawyer for the family said. James Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute, said Saturday, “There is no room for the kind of despicable action that occurred in Seattle.” He added: “The tragic conflict raging in the Middle East cannot be used as justification for any criminal act of hate in this country. It is wrong and we reject it.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a similar statement. Messages of condolence and support have been coming in from Seattle’s Muslim community. Two Muslim women helped lay flowers last Friday at B’nai Torah, Waechter’s synagogue. Muslim leaders have told local reporters they fear a backlash similar to what they experienced after the 9/11 attacks. A march scheduled for Saturday calling for a cease-fire in the Middle East was canceled, as were events slated for last Friday at a city mosque. At a vigil in a Seattle park Saturday afternoon, approximately 50 community members, some of them current or former employees of the federation, gathered to pray and speak about the incident. Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum of the Kavana group put the shootings into the context of the Nine Days, the current period that culminates Wednesday night with the Tisha B’Av fast that commemorates the destruction of the Temples, as the most tragic in Jewish history. Several attendees at the vigil expressed hope that the shooting could be used as an opportunity to build better relations with the local Muslim community, an idea proposed last Friday afternoon by at least one local Muslim leader. (JTA correspondent Sue Fishkoff in Oakland, Calif., contributed to this report.)

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Securing Seattle

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