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hnpccThis morning there was a shooting at Monash, where I work. The first we knew of it was when we noticed the helicopters everywhere. I thought there'd been an armed robbery. A minute later the guy from the office next door came in and told us to lock our offices as there'd been a shooting in the Robert Menzies building. He'd heard it from his partner, who'd heard it on the news.
It turns out that there are 2 dead, 8 injured. Of the 8 injured 2 are serious - they were airlifed via the Angel of Mercy helicopters to the trauma unit at the Alfred. The other helicopters were police (probably ART) and - I guess - media. The gunman is in custody. He opened fire in a tutorial. He was overpowered by other people in the tutorial. No real details as yet, only that it happened.
And two people are dead.
Everyone at Monash is shocked. It's not - after all - something you expect to happen. Verbal abuse over marks, maybe, a punch or two... well, getting serious. But not this. The grounds are currently very quiet, it's as if it were a uni holiday. All classes normally held in the Robert Menzies have been cancelled: for starters the building is a crime scene and mostly sealed off. Most students have gone home and pretty much everyone who works in the Robert Menzies (Arts and Economics departments I think). There's a lot of speculation and rumours flying wild.
And the phone system's totally overloaded.
I hope we find out why. I hope the gunman's mentally ill and that this isn't a revenge fantasy being acted out. At 10am this morning I had coffee in the building opposite at the start of a normal Monday. At 11.20 two people were killed during a day gone insane.
It's surreal.
It turns out that there are 2 dead, 8 injured. Of the 8 injured 2 are serious - they were airlifed via the Angel of Mercy helicopters to the trauma unit at the Alfred. The other helicopters were police (probably ART) and - I guess - media. The gunman is in custody. He opened fire in a tutorial. He was overpowered by other people in the tutorial. No real details as yet, only that it happened.
And two people are dead.
Everyone at Monash is shocked. It's not - after all - something you expect to happen. Verbal abuse over marks, maybe, a punch or two... well, getting serious. But not this. The grounds are currently very quiet, it's as if it were a uni holiday. All classes normally held in the Robert Menzies have been cancelled: for starters the building is a crime scene and mostly sealed off. Most students have gone home and pretty much everyone who works in the Robert Menzies (Arts and Economics departments I think). There's a lot of speculation and rumours flying wild.
And the phone system's totally overloaded.
I hope we find out why. I hope the gunman's mentally ill and that this isn't a revenge fantasy being acted out. At 10am this morning I had coffee in the building opposite at the start of a normal Monday. At 11.20 two people were killed during a day gone insane.
It's surreal.
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Date: 2002-10-21 01:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-10-21 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-10-23 07:43 am (UTC)That's just awful. Scary and terribly grim. I am glad that you are OK and I hope that nothing else happens...is it close enough to the millennium to still be thinking about the end of the world I wonder? How are things now? Like it never happened or everyone still on edge?