“Obviously, I Sit By The Door”: Summer Emails From Psycho Killer’s Classmate – With Video
Nov 17, 2011 9 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Article is meant to be read with this accompanying music:
By David A. Fahrenthold
In early June, Ashlee Sinder Sorenson, 18, had gone to community college in Tucson in hopes of getting on the job market. One of her classes was a basic algebra class–and one of her classmates was Jared Loughner, now identified by authorities as the man who killed six people and critically wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) in a shooting rampage. Sorenson’s e-mails to friends from summer 2010, provided to the Washington Post, reveal her growing alarm at Loughner’s strange and disruptive
behavior in class.
From June 1, the first day of class:
“One day down and nineteen to go. We do have one student in the class who was disruptive today, I’m not certain yet if he was on drugs (as one person surmised) or disturbed. He scares me a bit. The teacher tried to throw him out and he refused to go, so I talked to the teacher afterward. Hopefully he will be out of class very soon, and not come back with an automatic weapon.”
From June 10:
“As for me, Thursday means the end to week two of algebra class. It seems to be going by quickly, but then I do have three weeks to go so we’ll see how I feel by then. Class isn’t dull as we have a seriously disturbed boy in the class, and they are trying to figure out how to get rid of him before he does something bad, but on the other hand, until he does something bad, you can’t do anything about him. Needless to say, I sit by
the door.”
From June 14:
“We have a mentally unstable boy in the class that scares the living crap out of me. He is one of those whose picture you see on the news, after he has come into class with an automatic weapon. Everyone interviewed would say, Yeah, he was in my math class and he was really weird. I sit by the door with my purse handy. If you see it on the news one night, know that I got out fast…”
Editor’s note: The class’s instructor, Ben McGahee, said in an interview that Loughner had been removed from class in its third or fourth week, because of repeated disruptions.
