1971-11-12-sc-p9-harmon-rampage

November 12, 1971 Spokane Daily Chronicle Page 9:

Hit Youth Tells Fear

By DEAN LOKKEN

"I couldn’t move and I prayed he wouldn't take another shot," a Gonzaga University student wounded in yesterday's shootings said today.

Michael J. Clark, 18, shot in the back as he tried to flee a gunman on the edge of the school campus, said he first thought the shooting was a joke.

Listed as Satisfactory

Clark, a freshman majoring in political science, was listed in satisfactory condition at Sacred Heart Medical Center. He was one of the first patients moved to the hospital’s new intensive care unit today.

"I saw him standing beside his Scout auto with a rifle in his hand but thought he was just someone who had been out hunting," Clark said.

"I stopped at the stop sign on Astor and when I glanced back, he was walking up to my car with the gun. I tried to get down when he pointed the gun and pulled the trigger."

Hit by Glass

Clark said he was struck in the face by fragments of a window shattered by the first bullet. When he tried to run from his car, he was hit by another bullet in the middle of the back, Clark said.

"It just missed my spine and I couldn’t move. Even then I still thought it must be some kind of a joke."

Clark said the gunman, Larry J Harmon, then started shooting others. Police arrived Within what seemed “two or three minutes,” he said.

Calmness Striking

"What struck me about him was how calm he was about the whole thing," said Clark. "Everything he did—the shooting—loading the gun—was done so calmly."

“He went back to his Scout and was taking a gas can out of it when the police arrived,

"One officer got down behind bush by the rectory and yelled to him to drop his gun, He didn't and there was an exchange of shots.

“After he had been hit the first time, he walked past me whimpering to his Scout. When more police told him they’d shoot, I heard him call, 'You will, will you,' and then he shot again."

Luck. Recalled

Clark, from Tonasket, Wash., and the father of a l-year-old boy, said he was lucky on the first shot.

"It must have ricocheted. I just don’t see how he could have missed otherwise."

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Church Statues Smashed

A statue of a religious figure carrying a cross and a figure of Jesus Christ lies on the floor, its head broken off, in St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church where two persons were killed and four other persons wounded in a wild shooting incident in and near the church yesterday.

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Sacristan Shot Down

Victims Noted for Devout Feelings

By John Lemon

A man of great devotion to the Virgin Mary, Hilary M. Kunz, 68-year-old sacristan caretaker at St. Aloysius Roman Catholic church, frequently prayed before statue of the Mother of Christ.

He was shot and killed yesterday as he went about his duties in the sanctuary. His body was found beside the desecrated statue of the Virgin Mother, knocked from its pedestal by the slayer.

Retired From Farming

After retiring from a life of farming in the Sherman-Wilbur district, the devoutly religious man had dedicated his life to service to the church.

Leaving the family farm in hands of his son, Larry, in 1967, he and- his second wife, Hilda, journeyed to Glenallen, Alaska, where they spent a year as volunteer working in the Copper Valley School. Returning to make their home in Spokane, Kunz then undertook more volunteer service as a caretaker at the Gonzaga Waikiki Retreat House north of the city for two years.

Since then, he has served as a caretaker, gardener, janitor and handyman at St. Aloysious church and rectory. Spending almost every day at the church, he followed his own form of lay ministry, frequently talking to the transients and tourists who came to the church. He often told his family about his discussions with those strangers, expressing the hope that their visits to the church strengthened their faith and brought them peace and hope.

Born Near Wilbur

Born in the Wilbur area, Kunz was a member of a pioneer family in that region and raised wheat and cattle on part of what was the original family farm. Although he came from a large family, only one sister, Mrs. Gertrude Menchan of Spokane, survives. While rearing seven children, he was active an interested in community affairs and served several terms on the school board there while also taking interest in the Grange and conservation district affairs. He and his first wife were named Conservation Farmers of the Year in 1957, the year before her death.

Kunz graduated from Gonzaga in 1925 when it was still a college, and he taught there for one year before returning to the farm.

His family recalls that, during his years on the farm, Kunz found a close relationship between himself, the soil and God and much of his time was given to his children's devotions and religious training. The children said that he encouraged their interests in anything in which they showed particular skill or curiosity, whether it be music, sports, or other pursuits.

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Shock of Tragedy

Daily Mass Is Moved

By ROWLAND BOND

Students and faculty at Gonzaga University today were coming slowly out of a sorrow-inspired state of shock after tragedy struck St, Aloysius Church adjacent to the campus.

For the first day in 57 years there was no celebration of the mass in the beautiful structure that has been a place of worship for the entire community since it was constructed in 1914, It was the first time in 81 years that a mass has not been performed either in the new church or the one that preceded it in 1888.

Because the church has been so closely related to Gonzaga in the minds of the public, numerous calls coming into the university public relations office indicate that the individual who damaged the church interior and then went on a shooting rampage was a student at Gonzaga.

James B. Glynn, public information officer, said he has tried to make it clear that it was not a student-related or campus-related incident.

Students “Victims”

“It should be made clear that our students were not the perpetrators but the victims,” he said. "Scores of our students saw this from the dining and residence halls. Many of them were shocked into hysteria by the tragedy they saw unfolding before their very eyes."

The Rev. L. L. Kreuzer, pastor of the church said Mass celebrations have been shifted to the Jesuit House chapel for today and tomorrow and he hopes to have the badly damaged altar in such condition that Mass may be resumed Sunday in the church.

The Rev. Arthur L. Dussault, vice president of Gonzaga, said the Jesuit community had joined prayers last night for the Harmon family, the Kunz family and for the students who were wounded.

Student reaction was expressed in a sign they posted upon the doors of the locked church: "It is a Holy thing for those who believe in Resurrection to pray for the dead. Brothers and sisters let us join together in prayer for our brothers in the Student Chapel at 8 tonight."

Lesson Hoped

Meeting today with the board of trustees, the Very Rev. Richard E. Twoby, president, said on their behalf that “as terrible and regrettable as this situation is, I hope we may draw some good from the light that it has thrown on this insane experimentation with drugs.”

"This is one of those unpredictable outbursts that could happen anywhere. It is a terrible tragedy for the Kunz and Harmon families and for the young people who have been hit directly or indirectly.

“It has saddened and sobered all of us but the fact that Harmon was potentially a fine student brings home to our own students a vivid message of the value of life itself which they naturally value so highly.

"Had life followed its normal course. Harmon would have been a man admired by youth. Now he is lost to his parents and to society through an insane gun battle in the streets. Everyone in Spokane shares this sadness with our students and our trustees."

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Conscientious Man

Father Dussalt said that Kunz |was one of the most conscientious men he has ever known and if he were looking for a candidate for sainthood Hilary Kunz would have to be near the top of the list. He said that he spent some time with Mrs. Kunz last night and that while she was grief stricken she felt that if her husband had to go, that was the place for it to happen: in a House of God and doing God's work.

Kunz was on a ladder dusting the tops of the stations of the Cross, when he was shot. He had been dusting the Statue of the Sacred Heart which had been initialed "L. J. H." a year ago.

"The Harmon family is being brave under these trying circumstances," Father Dussault said. "I know God will help them through their ordeal."