Lalu saya iseng pengen nyetak gambar. Pas lagi berdiri di depan komputer perpus untuk ngeprint, saya sekilas denger ada pengumuman dari petugas. Saya nggak begitu jelas dengernya, cuma bagian “We’re locking down the building…”. Sempet agak bingung, and when I looked around, people also looked confused. Terus waku saya di depan printer, most people packed their things and went down stairs to the basement area. Sambil bawa hasil print-printan, saya balik ke meja saya. Edgardo juga nanya ke saya, “What is happening?” secara pas ada pengumuman itu dia lagi pake earphone. Saya masih clueless, dan ngeliatin jendela. The last time they did this kind of lock down and sent us to the basement was because of the tornado warning. But it was so sunny outside. Tapi kemudian ada pesan masuk di grup WA Purdue Indonesian Grad. Isinya? “Reported shooting at EE building. Stay updated and safe.”
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Dan dalam beberapa saat, I started to hear people making phone calls. Edgardo was checking the news, dan saya dengan paniknya menyuruh dia ngecek keadaan temen-temen kami yang lain. Lock down itu mulai dari sekitar jam 12.05 siang. Selama di perpus itu, we checked the news. They said that a person was already in custody. Still, tetep berasa unreal. Half of me felt like I am part of a movie, being played in a slow motion. Jam 13.25, ada pengumuman that we can resume our activities back. Pas jalan ke Lilly Hall, tempat saya janjian sama temen, itu helikopter SWAT masih lewat-lewat di atas sana. Habis ngerjain PR, saya langsung balik. Setengah karena udah ngantuk, setengah lagi karena mau nonton Capital One Cup. Di apartemen, sambil nonton bola, sambil ngecek berita dan nge-chat juga sama temen.
The victim was a TA. In fact, the shooter was also a TA, and they both had the same professor. The victim was fatally shot to dead. He was only 21, and he’s a senior, he supposed to graduate this May. Gosh, he could have been someone that I know. He could have been one of my friends. The victim could have been me! Berasa unreal aja rasanya. Sebelum berangkat ke USA, beberapa temen emang yang suka sambil becanda nakut-nakutin saya bahwa di US suka ada insiden penembakan. Pas saya sampe disini, saya gak kebayang that it would ever happpened here in Purdue. I mean, West Lafayette is such a small city anyway, you don’t expect anything to happen around here. But then, this incident happened. Cuma baca berita tentang suatu insiden ini di koran atau internet, beda banget rasanya. This time, it’s for real. EE Building is less than 10 minutes walking from Hicks Library, the place where I was when the shooting happened.
There was a candle light vigil for the victim in the evening. I was shivered to see the pictures. So many people gathered in the cold night (it was around -18°C that night).
A lot of people was shocked by this incident. All classes were cancelled throughout Wednesday. Kalo biasanya saya seneng dapet libur tambahan, this time I don’t feel good about it. Yes, no classes. No, I don’t feel good nor excited about it. It just doesn’t feel right to feel happy if the reason is for something so sad like this kind of incident. I called my Mom, telling her about the incident with a shaky voice.
This shooting incident is just another proof that life is indeed, very unpredictable.
Deep condolences to the victim and his family. Purdue is mourning for you.
