| Related Links |
|
GLAA Testifies on Office of Human Rights 02/28/01 Gallaudet Suspect Arrested The Best Defense Against Fear? Gallaudet's Got It (Marc Fisher, The Washington Post) 02/06/01 Second Homicide in Four Months Grips Gallaudet (The Washington Post) 02/05/01 GLAA contributes 2 TTY machines to Police Department for deaf access 10/06/00 HRC hosts summit to address fears of Gallaudet gay student leaders 10/06/00 Mayor Williams Announces Anti-Discrimination Executive Order 10/03/00 |
Student Fought Attacker
Gallaudet Youth's Killer May Be Injured, Sources Say
Washington Post Staff Writers
The Washington Post
Tuesday, February 6, 2001; Page A01
The Gallaudet University freshman found stabbed to death in his dormitory room Saturday struggled with and may have injured his assailant, police sources said yesterday. Police dogs followed the scent of the suspected killer across the campus to New York Avenue NE before losing the trail, sources said.
University officials announced yesterday that the dormitory where 19-year-old Benjamin Varner was killed will be closed for the rest of the semester. He was the second student slain in Cogswell Hall in four months. The body of freshman Eric F. Plunkett, also 19, was found in a locked room three floors below Varner's in September.
D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said yesterday that police had no suspects in Varner's slaying. He said his department had collected a lot of evidence and information after interviews with students, but he declined to share details. Other law enforcement officers with knowledge of the Varner case described a grisly scene.
Sources said that Varner appeared to have put up a struggle and that his body showed cuts that probably were inflicted as he tried to shield his body from a knife.
"They fought in the room for a period of time," said a police source familiar with the case. Varner's throat was slashed and his face was mutilated, sources said. The killer apparently was also cut and left a blood trail while exiting the building through the back basement door. Police dogs picked up the scent from the blood and followed it.
A knife was recovered from a trash bin behind the dormitory, along with a bluish-green ski jacket saturated with blood, police sources said. Police are trying to determine whether the knife and jacket are linked to the slaying.
Ramsey said there is no evidence that Varner's and Plunkett's slayings are related, but he would not rule out a connection.
Thomas W. Minch, at the time a Gallaudet freshman, was arrested in Plunkett's death days after the slaying but was released a day later when the U.S. attorney's office determined that police did not have enough evidence to hold him.
A grand jury has been empaneled to investigate Plunkett's death, and a co-worker of Minch's in New Hampshire has said that Minch was to appear in court in the District last week. Authorities declined to say whether Minch actually returned to Washington.
Police in Minch's home town of Greenland, N.H., said yesterday that Minch was at home when officers, acting at the request of D.C. police, appeared at his house about noon Saturday.
Classes resumed yesterday on the 2,000-student Northeast Washington campus, a 136-year-old university for the deaf and hard of hearing, though some students stayed away.
Administrators assured students that the campus is safe and said that security has been increased. All those entering and exiting the university are subject to identification and license plate checks, and security patrols have been beefed up in the dorms and around campus.
Gallaudet Provost Jane Fernandes said university officials decided to close Cogswell through the end of the school year because its residents had already been moved to other dormitories and because officials thought students probably would not want to return.
Since Saturday, the university has received about 15 e-mails from parents, most of whom asked about increased security. About a dozen parents phoned university officials yesterday.
A row of students stood in the balcony of a campus meeting room yesterday as Varner's father addressed a news conference. The sniffles of students filled the silences.
"This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me," Willie Varner said as his daughter, Jennifer, stood by his side. Benjamin was a good son, he said, and he called his mother, Diane Varner, back home in San Antonio virtually every night.
Willie Varner described his son as intelligent and kind. Like many freshmen, Varner said, Benjamin was nervous about starting college so far from home. He hadn't declared a major, university officials said, though he had taken an interest in business administration. He was known more for hitting the books than for joining student clubs.
Varner said that he knew little about the crime but said that after the Plunkett slaying, his son shared his concerns about the possibility of a killer loose on campus.
"We were concerned for his safety. We talked about it," Varner said. "It bothered him, and . . . we talked about it again when he was home for Christmas."
Varner said the safety concerns didn't prevent his son from returning to school. "He got over that like we did," he said. "We kind of forgot about it."
The Varners also thanked the university, saying Benjamin enjoyed the friends and relationships he made there. "I have no regrets about him coming to Gallaudet," Willie Varner said.
A funeral is tentatively planned for Friday in San Antonio.
Students said yesterday that they have been getting most of their information about the case from the media, not from the university or the police. Chris Soukup, the student body president, said some students are frustrated that they have not been part of the decision-making process.
"We're not involved," Soukup, a senior, said of student leaders.
Fernandes plans to hold daily meetings with faculty, staff and students at various campus locations. Several hundred students attended yesterday's session. Fernandes said she often does not have the information or the answers that students want. She said university officials are not being told a lot about developments in the police investigation, which she said she finds understandable.
"The police department has a tight lid on this investigation. They are not sharing anything with us," Fernandes said.
Ramsey was unapologetic about not releasing information, saying it was important for police not to tip their hand.
The school's mental health center is providing counseling services as long as they are needed, and campus ministers also have made themselves available to students.
The Rev. Kirk VanGilder, a United Methodist campus minister, spent the weeks after Plunkett's death counseling students. This weekend, he found himself in the same position.
"Again, we're in that shock phase," VanGilder said. "Almost as if lightning had struck twice."
The people who teach, study and work at Gallaudet often speak of themselves as family. Many students who graduate come back to the school to work as faculty or staff, and when their children grow up, they often attend Gallaudet. The bond nearly everyone shares as a member of the deaf community now includes grief over the violent fate of two students.
"I am sure many students like myself feel once again another setback in our lives," freshman Christopher Sutton wrote in an e-mail to a Post reporter. "The murder of Eric Plunkett was hard enough to deal with and I have just been able to learn to deal with how to make my life normal again, and then this happens."
University officials have asked faculty members to be lenient with students and to postpone tests.
Varner's body was discovered during a room check after a fire alarm went off early Saturday.
Police said yesterday that they consider the entire Cogswell dorm a crime scene. They declined to say whether the fire alarm was tripped by someone or was a malfunction. University officials, however, said the dormitory has had chronic problems with students pulling fire alarms for no apparent reason, causing evacuations.
"It appears to have been done often," Fernandes said.
Staff writer Bill Miller contributed to this report.