Jason Cooper
The Communicator

For the second time in 10 weeks, an SFCC student was detained on campus and taken into mental health custody.

On Apr. 24, a 21-year-old male student was escorted to Sacred Heart Medical Center by Spokane Police officers and Spokane Mental Health counselor Joe Beckett.

According to Dennis Hauenstein, head of SFCC campus security, the incident started in building 7, and concluded in building 17 in the conference room of SFCC Vice President Steven Bays.

According to the Spokane Police report pertaining to this case, the student expressed to Spokane Police officers O’Connell and Shear and SFCC campus security that if (the student) “was touched in the wrong way, he would do something and none of them would see their families again.”

SFCC President, Mark Palek issued a no-trespass to the student, the status of which only he can change.

According to Hauenstein, the events leading up to the arrest started on Apr. 23 after SFCC counselors John Hernandez and Denise Osei tried to help the student be able to stay in school.

Both counselors did not return requests for an interview for this story.

“Mostly he worked with the counselors on Wednesday,” Hauenstein said. “They were trying to get him to talk about what was going on. See what kind of help they could offer him.”

After the student spoke to Hernandez and Osei, Hauenstein asked the student to leave the campus without returning.

“We asked him not to come back on campus in a clear, firm manner,” Hauenstein said.

At this point, the CCS officials had not issued a CCS no-trespass order to the student. Hauenstein said the student ignored the previous day’s request and was shooting baskets in the gym at SFCC the following day.

“We were called to go to the gym,” Hauenstein said. “We got counselor Denise Osei because she had a report with him, so the three of us went to the gym.”

Hauenstein said he, Josh WaitE of campus security, and Osei went down on the basketball court to confront the student and to figure out how to remove him from campus in the calmest, least disruptive manner possible.

“We kind of laid back, didn’t approach him quickly,” Hauenstein said. “We didn’t want to excite him and get him more frustrated because he’s very up and down in what’s going on.”

Hauenstein said Osei started talking to the student, who said he didn’t really want to talk to Osei. Waite went down to talk to him because, they “had to take him to either their office, or somewhere secluded away from students.”

“We actually chose to take him to the conference room down in the vice president’s office,” Hauenstein said. “Josh (Waite), after 25 minutes of convincing, got him to go with him down to the conference room… because we didn’t know how he was going to react to the mental health counselors being there.”

Waite spoke on his experience alone with the student.

“I was calm, I told him what we needed to do,” Waite said. “For most of the time, (the student) was trying to talk himself up, talking about being in fights before and winning.

“He made multiple references to several gangs and his affiliation with these gangs and his ability to purchase an SKS assault rifle from them to take care of the people that would keep him from playing basketball.”

In a statement given by Waite to the Communicator, Waite stated that the student had said he had already killed one person and would do it again if he must.

“When I asked him who he had killed, he said he wouldn’t give any names but it was a basketball disagreement,” Waite said. “He said ‘I pulled my pistol and the other guy pulled his pistol and God decided the other guy needed to die, and I shot him.’”

According to Waite, the student said he felt as if students and faculty were telling lies about him behind his back all the time, and didn’t really trust anyone at SFCC. The student also said that his outlet was shooting basketball, and this is why he kept coming back on campus even after being told to stay of campus.

“I simply told him that we’ll get you unenrolled and get you out of here so you can do your thing,” Waite said when asked why the student decided to cooperate and leave voluntarily.

“I’ll go with you,” the student said. “I’m tired of people promising me things that never happen.”

The decision on whether or not to have an all-faculty meeting in response to this situation has yet to be decided, but is being discussed by several staff members.

“I am working with (SFCC Vice President) Steve Bays, and he is going to contact Dr. Palek to see what the best way to get it done.”

You can contact the writer at staffwriter@spokanefalls.edu