Simon’s Rock shooting, 20 years later

Some of those watching the aftermath of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., may wonder what would happen if such a disaster were to take place in The Berkshires. Long-time area residents, however, know that a school shooting has already happened here.

On Dec. 14, 1992, Wayne Lo, an 18-year-old student at Simon’s Rock College in Great Barrington, went on a shooting spree, wounding four people and leaving 18-year-old poetry major Galen Gibson and 37-year-old Spanish Professor Ñacuñán L. Sáez dead. After his gun jammed during the shooting, Mr. Lo called the police and surrendered to them.

Convicted of the murders of Mr. Gibson and Mr. Sáez in 1994, Mr. Lo is currently serving two sentences of life without the possibility of parole in Massachusetts State Prison.

Mr. Lo said he thought he received a divine message commanding him to carry out the shooting. He has steadfastly denied being mentally ill, despite his lawyers putting up an unsuccessful insanity defense at his trial. He has also expressed remorse for the killings since his imprisonment.

Mr. Lo was born in Taiwan, but emigrated with his family to Billings, Mont., in 1987, when he was 12 years old. He’d previously lived in the United States from 1981-1983, when his father was assigned to a diplomatic post in Washington, D.C. A talented violinist, Mr. Lo played first violin with the Billings Symphony Orchestra and maintained a 3.65 grade point average.

He transferred to Simon’s Rock in 1991, which teaches high school students who are ready to begin college early. Some students reported that Mr. Lo possessed racist and homophobic views, although he has denied this in interviews conducted since his incarceration.

The morning before the shooting, Mr. Lo received a package full of ammunition from the company Classic Arms he’d purchased over the phone using a credit card he stole from his mother. Seeing the name on the box, school officials became suspicious of its contents and requested to see it, but by the time they acted, Mr. Lo had hidden the ammunition and claimed the package contained gun parts his father bought him as a present.

The day of the shooting, he took a taxi to Pittsfield and purchased an SKS semiautomatic rifle. As an out-of-state resident, Mr. Lo was able to purchase the rifle he used in the shooting on the same day he carried out the attack, because he was covered under Montana’s gun laws and only had to produce his Montana driver’s license. (As the law now stands, non-residents are not allowed to purchase guns or ammunition in the state of Massachusetts.)

The night of the shooting, one of his friends placed an anonymous call to the residence director of Mr. Lo’s dorm, after failing to reach security, saying Mr. Lo had a gun and was planning to hurt others or himself the next day. In response, the school evacuated the residence director and her family and prepared to question Mr. Lo. The police were not called. Before this questioning could take place, however, the attack occurred.

In the aftermath of the shooting, Mr. Gibson’s family sued Simon’s Rock, claiming the college not paying enough attention to warning signs about Mr. Lo before the attack was a contributing factor to the shooting. Simon’s Rock denied any wrong-doing, but the Gibsons and the college’s insurance companies eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

Mr. Gibson’s father, Gregory Gibson, wrote a book about the shooting and his son’s death called Gone Boy: A Walkabout. The publication of this book sparked a correspondence between Mr. Gibson and Mr. Lo.

Officials at Simon’s Rock did not return a request for comment about the shooting in time for publication.

The shooting at Simon’s Rock, which marked its 20th anniversary this month, shows, even in a place as seemingly peaceful as The Berkshires, terrible acts of violence can still occur.

Posted by Bera B. Dunau on December 20, 2012. Filed under Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry