Oikos University shooting

Coordinates: 37°44′28″N 122°12′07″W / 37.741°N 122.202°W / 37.741; -122.202

The Oikos University shooting occurred on April 2, 2012, when a gunman shot at people inside Oikos University, a Korean Christian college in Oakland, California, United States. Within a few hours, the number of reported fatalities reached seven.^[2] 43-year-old One L. Goh, a former student at the school, was taken into custody and identified as the suspect in the shootings. Along with the California State University, Fullerton massacre, this was the fourth-deadliest university shooting in United States history, after the Virginia Tech massacre, the University of Texas Clock Tower shooting, and the Umpqua Community College shooting, and the eighth-deadliest U.S. school massacre overall.^[3][4] It is also considered the deadliest mass killing in the city's history.^[5]

Details

The shooting happened at approximately 10:30 am Pacific Daylight Time, when a gunman opened fire with a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun with four fully loaded 10-round magazines on the university's campus, located at the Airport Business park in East Oakland, near the Oakland International Airport. The suspected gunman, 43-year-old One L. Goh, stood up in a nursing classroom while class was in session, ordered classmates to line up against the wall, and fired at them. The gunman was reported to have said "Get in line ... I'm going to kill you all!" before opening fire, according to a witness.^[6] Seven were reported dead, and three others injured. The attacker continued to fire shots as he fled the campus, driving away in a car belonging to one of the victims. Hours later, he surrendered to authorities at a Safeway supermarket in the nearby South Shore area of Alameda, about five miles away from the scene of the shooting.^[7][8][9]

Suspect

One L. Goh (born November 18, 1968; sometimes reported as One Goh Ko or One Ko Goh), a former student at Oikos University, was identified as the suspected shooter. He was residing in Oakland at the time of the attack.^[13][14] A native of South Korea, he followed his parents and two older brothers to the United States at a young age and later naturalized as a U.S. citizen.^[11][15] When Goh arrived to the United States, he first resided in Springfield, a community in Fairfax County, Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C., and then moved to Hayes, in rural southwest Virginia, where he had minor traffic citations and debts. In February 2002 he changed his name from Su Nam Ko because he felt his birth name sounded "like a girl’s name."^[16]

Goh later moved from Virginia to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he took up residence in Castro Valley and in Oakland.^[17] His mother Oak-Chul Kim also lived in Oakland, while his brother Su-Wan Ko, an administrative non-commissioned officer in the United States Army, and another brother Su-Kwon remained in Virginia.^[17][18] On March 8, 2011, Su-Wan was killed in an automobile accident in Virginia while on assignment for the George C. Marshall Center.^[18][19] Later that year, his mother returned to Seoul, South Korea, where she died as well.^[17] While a student at Oikos University, Goh had disciplinary problems, and was asked to leave the school a few months prior to the shooting.^[17]

Howard Jordan, the chief of the Oakland Police Department, said that Goh was angry at the administration after being expelled from the university, as well as having his request for a pro-rated tuition fee reversal on his $6,000 payment denied by Ellen Cervellan, one of the school's administrators.^[20] School officials later said he had not been expelled.^[21][22] Jordan said Goh went to Oikos with "the intent of locating [an] administrator", but when learning she was not there, he opened fire at random people.^[23] Jordan said Goh "was also upset that students in the past, when he attended the school, mistreated him, disrespected him, and things of that nature."^[23]

Hearings

Goh was arraigned before Judge Sandra Bean of the Alameda County Superior Court on April 4 and charged with seven counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder, but did not enter a plea at the time.^[24] In interviews, Goh apologized for the shooting, stating that he did not remember many parts of the day in question and that it was difficult for him to speak about it. He was also hospitalized, and began refusing to eat; three weeks after his arrest, county sheriffs reportedly considered the possibility of obtaining a court order to have him fed forcibly through a feeding tube.^[25] Goh later resumed eating, though he had lost 20 pounds (9.1 kg). On April 30, he appeared before Judge Bean again and entered a not guilty plea through his public defender David Klaus.^[26] If convicted, Goh would be eligible for the death penalty under California law due to enhanced penalties for special circumstances which could apply to his case, including the commission of multiple murders and the commission of murder during a carjacking.^[26][27]

Goh's pre-trial hearing was originally scheduled for June 30.^[26] It was eventually held on October 1 before Judge Carrie Panetta. Klaus argued that Goh was not mentally competent to stand trial, and so Panetta ordered that the hearing be adjourned until November 16 so that a competency evaluation could be conducted. Goh used the services of a Korean interpreter during the hearing, and briefly disrupted the proceedings with an outburst when Klaus began speaking about Goh's mental competence.^[27] The court appointed two psychiatrists to evaluate Goh. The hearing resumed on November 19 to discuss the report of the first psychiatrist, which was completed on schedule. According to Klaus' statements, that report concluded that Goh had suffered from paranoid schizophrenia for up to a decade and a half, and that he lacked the ability to cooperate with his public defender due to his incomprehension of the criminal justice system. The report of the second psychiatrist was not yet complete by that time, so proceedings were again suspended until January 7, 2013.^[28] Goh refused medication while in jail.^[29]

The second psychiatrist's report presented at the January 7, 2013 hearing also concluded that Goh suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.^[29] On that basis, Panetta ruled that Goh was unfit to stand trial, and ordered that he be confined to a mental institution for treatment, with further competency reviews to be held every ninety days.^[30] An additional hearing was scheduled for January 28, 2013. Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley has not yet concluded whether she will seek the death penalty for Goh if and when he goes to trial.^[29]

On August 26, 2014, an Alameda County grand jury indicted Goh on seven counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder but as of September 9, 2014, he was still assessed as mentally incompetent for trial.^[31] During a hearing on December 2, 2015, Goh expressed his wish for the death penalty, though the attorneys on both sides are unsure whether he feels genuine guilt or still suffers from delusions.^[32]

Victims

Seven people were killed and three were injured.^[4]

Killed

• Tshering Rinzing Bhutia, 38^[33]
• Doris Chibuko, 40^[34]
• Sonam Chodon, 33^[35]
• Grace Eunhae Kim, 23^[35]
• Katleen Ping, 24^[33]
• Judith Seymour, 53^[36]
• Lydia Sim, 21^[33]

Wounded

• Dawinder Kaur, 19^[4]
• Grace Kirika, 43^[37]
• Ahmad Javid Sayeed, 36^[37]

See also

• List of attacks related to post-secondary schools
• School shooting

References