Michele Klassy has lived on Sherman Avenue for 46 years. She watched from her house — near Hooker Oak Elementary School’s soccer field — as the Chico branch of the Butte County Library was built.
“It’s a great place to live,” Klassy told ChicoSol reporters from her front porch today. “I’ve watched people come and go over the years. And now all of a sudden you have this kind of a tragedy that’s so unexpected. I’m very sad. We lost two precious lives yesterday for no reasonable reason.”
The June 22 shooting at the library left two adults dead and one child injured – and it imposed a sense of grief, sorrow and anxiety that has settled over the city as a whole.
In front of the library entrance and on the bench outside, people have placed flowers and cards to express their condolences. A vigil is planned for 8 p.m. today.
Leighton Leathers was in the back of the library playing video games when the shooting occurred. When he noticed people around him running, he removed his headphones and went toward the front. After hearing a gunshot, he turned and ran.
“When I heard the gunshot, I was like, OK, it’s a real thing, and then you all of a sudden are fearful,” Leathers said.
After Leathers left the library and was taken to a safe area with other patrons, he saw children crying and police officers questioning people. Leathers said he hadn’t slept because he was worried about his belongings that were left at the library.
“They’re all that I have right now,” Leathers said. “We don’t really know the procedure that’s going to happen, and my stuff could get confused with somebody else’s, and I kind of really need my stuff.”
Teri Bradburn, 70, usually meets a friend at Butte County Library every Tuesday morning to knit. Today, even though she had learned the news of the shooting, she had reported to the library.
“If this doesn’t stop, they are going to have to ban guns,” Bradburn said. “There’s too many guns out there, and too many kids have access to them. Nobody seems willing to do anything effective about it.”
As a former librarian, Bradburn said the library was one of the amenities she was looking for when she moved to Chico. “A good library was one of my criteria, and this one meets it,” Bradburn said, adding that she often comes to the library for book sales.
Aubrey, an 18-year-old who declined to give her full name, lives across East First Avenue from the library. She practiced driving and parking in the library’s parking lot.
“That’s really scary,” she said of the fatal shootings. “It’s a really big community place, and I know a lot of college kids go there and study, especially during finals,” Aubrey said. “It’s crowded. It’s always packed. There’s families, and then there’s old people, and then there’s kids in there. I think it’s a really big community spot.”
Julia Flynn, a south Chico resident, expressed her dismay at the news.
“It’s devastating to hear that a safe, family-oriented space like the public library has now seen such violence,” Flynn said in a text conversation with ChicoSol. “When I was little, the first time I ever wrote my name was on my first library card in my hometown. Libraries are so important. I am really hoping people continue to support these public spaces and don’t avoid them out of fear.”
Flynn worries that this tragedy might bring a call for “higher” police budgets and “a greater police presence in our community.”
“I think it’s important to remember that this happened even with increased police presence in our community,” Flynn said. “I hope that our local government does not use this as an excuse to further militarize the police.” — Yucheng Tang