Shooting rampage widely felt in Idaho college town
MOSCOW, Idaho — A shooter’s rampage that claimed four lives, including his own, and wounded three other people was felt throughout this small college town.
Jason Hamilton’s violence brought him into contact with many people he already knew.
Police say Hamilton began by killing his wife and then shooting up the Latah County Courthouse, where she worked as a custodian. He ended the spree by killing himself in the First Presbyterian Church, after fatally shooting the caretaker he knew from his job as a janitor for a custodial company.
Hamilton, 36, was also known to local law enforcement officers. He had been arrested for domestic violence, had attempted suicide by pills in February, and then warned a mental health professional that he wanted to kill himself in a way that would harm others.
But in the end he left no obvious reason for the violence.
“We have not found any note,” said David Duke, assistant chief of the Moscow Police Department. “We do not have any motive at this time. We have no idea.”
Police said they had no doubt Hamilton was the one responsible for the carnage.
“That’s correct, there are no other suspects,” Duke said Monday.
Hamilton shattered the quiet of this bucolic college town with some 200 gunshots late Saturday night and early Sunday morning. His bullets took a heavy toll in a community of some 20,000 people that includes the University of Idaho.
“This is a tragic event, but an aberration here,” Mayor Nancy Chaney told a news conference Monday. “We are a small, close-knit community where we pay attention.”
The mayor praised police for quickly telling neighborhood residents to stay inside their homes.
“It could have been much, much worse,” she said. The mayor said counseling services were available for residents of the town 80 miles south of Spokane, Wash., and public memorial services were being planned for the victims.
Hamilton had been drinking at a bar in town on Saturday night, showing no outward sign of distress, police said.
About 10 p.m. Saturday, he returned to his home about 3 miles from town and fatally shot his 30-year-old wife Crystal in the head, Duke told the news conference.
Hamilton then drove downtown to the Latah County Courthouse, armed with two semiautomatic rifles that he apparently bought before his legal troubles began, Duke said. Standing outside the courthouse, which houses the sheriff’s department, Hamilton fired some 125 bullets into the sheriff’s dispatch center and into vehicles in the parking lot shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday.
He shot and killed one law enforcement officer, shot and wounded a good Samaritan who armed himself and ran to the sound of the shots, and wounded two other law enforcement officers, Duke said.
Then Hamilton moved across the street to the First Presbyterian Church.
Church sexton Paul Bauer was shot while he tried to call 911; dispatchers could hear the gunfire, Duke said.
Hamilton fired an additional 60 to 80 rounds from inside the church before killing himself around 1 a.m. Sunday, Duke said. An AK-47 rifle was found next to Hamilton’s body, Duke said.
While Hamilton appears to have targeted law enforcement by first shooting up the sheriff’s department and then shooting responding officers, Duke said there was no sign that he had a particular grudge against police officers.
According to Duke, Hamilton in 2005 had been arrested for domestic violence against a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair, and sentenced to two years probation. He was not to possess firearms during that time, but possessed the rifles before that charge was filed, Duke said.
On Feb. 16, Hamilton attempted suicide by overdosing on anti-anxiety medication, and was evaluated twice for involuntary mental health commitment, Duke said.
Hamilton told his first doctor that if he were really to commit suicide, he would do it through a mass shooting or bombing in which others would die, Duke said. But he later said he was not serious, Duke said.
Hamilton was judged not to need involuntary commitment, and was released, Duke said.
Hamilton was in court May 15 for violating the conditions of his probation on the domestic violence charge by halting his mental health counseling, Duke said. The case was continued until June 15.
Duke said police found Crystal Hamilton’s body Sunday morning, but did not release the information so relatives could first be notified.
She had worked at the courthouse janitorial department since 2000.
The Hamiltons were from the Kuna, Idaho, area, had lived in Moscow since the late 1990s and did not have children, officials said.
Hamilton was armed during the rampage with the AK-47 and a Springfield M1-A, Duke said. The Springfield was purchased from a Moscow store. The AK-47 was still being traced, he said
Killed were Moscow Police Officer Lee Newbill, 48, the first officer on the scene and the city’s first officer killed in the line of duty. A second city officer, Bill Shields, was slightly wounded by bullet fragments.
The injured civilian was identified Monday by his mother as Pete Husmann, 20, a University of Idaho mechanical engineering student from Coeur d’Alene. Janice Husmann said her son was shot three times after he grabbed a handgun and rushed from his apartment to render aid after hearing the gunshots. He was in serious but stable condition, she said.
Latah County sheriff’s Sgt. Brannon Jordan, a 17-year veteran, was shot as he took cover behind a tree after pulling Newbill out of the line of fire, Duke said. Jordan suffered multiple gunshot wounds, but was upgraded from serious condition and released from the hospital Monday afternoon, sheriff’s spokeswoman Rhonda Bunney said.
Bauer, 62, was killed in the church. The two men knew each other, Duke said.
Hamilton was apparently a military veteran, although Duke did not immediately have details.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.
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