Another Small Town's Peace Shattered

On Saturday night, Jason Hamilton, a man with a history of legal and domestic problems left a friend at a bar where he had apparently been enjoying himself, and murdered his wife Crystal at their home just outside of Moscow, Idaho by a single gunshot to the head. Then, armed with an AK-47 and Springfield M-1 rifle, he took up a position near the Latah County Courthouse and opened fire on the Latah County Sheriff's Office's dispatch center. He fired on officers and deputies responding to the scene, wounding a civilian, Peter Husmann and Sheriff's Deputy Brannon Jordon and killing Officer Lee Newbill, the first Moscow Police Department officer ever to die in the line of duty. At First Presbyterian church, where he was a maintenance worker, Hamilton murdered the sexton, Paul Bauer. He was found in the sanctuary, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 125 casings from the shooter's weapons have been recovered from the scene of the shootout.

I went to law school at the University of Idaho in Moscow, and I lived in that town for several years. I do not know any of the people involved in this outrage. Although violent crimes have taken place in Moscow before, mass murder was unthinkable there up until now. Pray for the souls of the victims and their families, and for the recovery of the wounded.