The flag at the Boardwalk flies at half-mast after last week's shootings in Santa Cruz. Photo by Chip Scheuer.
Last Tuesday, while snipers were on the roof of Whole Foods on Soquel Ave., Cabrillo student Nicholas Goray was inside.
“It was a pretty crazy situation. A lot of people were panicking,” he says. “They locked us in Whole Foods, and a lot of people were shaken. [The staff] said, ‘if there’s anything we can do to make you feel comfortable, please tell us.’ They gave us free access to the hot bar, so I went around and ate everything I could—within reason, you know?”
During the three hours he spent on lockdown at Whole Foods following the shootout between 35-year-old Jeremy Peter Goulet, who had gunned down two Santa Cruz police officers a half hour before, and the officers who eventually killed Goulet, Goray made it a point to speak to everyone in the Whole Foods. Some of the people inside, he discovered, lived near the Whole Foods and ran there for safety when they heard gunshots near their homes.
“The people who lived in that neighborhood were definitely very scared. I remember one woman said she didn’t want to go home that night,” he says.
“We're all concerned,” says Seabright resident Debbie Bucher, while on the way to pick up her grandchild at Gault Elementary. “You can't help but be, when you're walking kids to school and you're working out in the yard. “This is a quiet neighborhood, but you never know when anybody can be set off like that…It's crazy, and I do feel more concerned.”
Fear is humans’ natural response to events such as the shootings from Tuesday and the increase in crime that Santa Cruz saw in the weeks prior, says Aptos-based trauma therapist Karen Ouse. “With an increase in violence, the part of our brain that is assessing for danger—the amygdala—lights up. When there is violence people pull in, and question whether it’s safe to pull out,” Ouse says.
Community members are also seeking ways to feel safer. Clara Minor, owner of Minorsan Self-Defense and Fitness, has seen a spike in enrollment for the monthly, free self-defense workshops she offers at her fitness studio. She had to cap her scheduled March 16 workshop at 28 enrollees (compared to roughly 10 she sees at her summertime workshops), and expects a similarly large turnout for her April 20 workshop, which is still open.
Asked if she believes Santa Cruz has gotten less safe recently, Minor is adamant: “No. No. No. It’s not any less safe than anywhere else, or than it was in the past. The things that have happened are random.”
She encourages people to learn techniques for awareness and projecting “assertive energy”—such as keeping their heads up (no faces buried in cell phones), using only one ear bud if listening to music whole jogging, and walking tall, with shoulders back and heads up to see as much of the environment as possible.
“That gives you the best option for not being seen as a possible victim,” she says. “If people empower themselves one person at a time, it’ll be easier to handle the negativity and violence that’s out there, because strong people are going to be more willing to help other people in need.”
Ouse echoes the importance of supporting one another. “Part of what this violence has done is that we’re becoming afraid of other people. We need to remind ourselves of our humanity. People need to turn to each other. We are wired for relationships,” she says.
Gorey discovered exactly that for himself last week at the Food Bin, which was robbed at gunpoint two weeks earlier.
“Sometimes after they close, there’s a box they leave outside with vegetables. I went to get some vegetables, and somebody ran up behind me to go for the box, but I quickly turned around and put my hands in fighting position and I said, ‘you can’t do that right now. People are freaked out,’” he recalls. “He just didn’t get it. But a lot of people understand. There’s a lot of fear. There’s a lot of anticipation that there’s going to be another violent act.”
Sometimes feeling safe in times like this, Minor says, largely comes down to trusting our instincts.
“There are some things we absolutely have no control over. However, the things that we do have control over are our own bodies and our intuition,” she says. “The voice that says, 'bing bing, red flag, red flag'—that, we have to listen to. Do whatever that it is telling us to do. Whether it's 'don't go out right now, take a friend with you, leave this guy alone.' Instead of thinking, 'I don't want to make waves, I want everybody to like me.'” Additional reporting by Helen Tinna.
