A special education teacher was shot and killed outside Tacoma’s Birney Elementary this morning. The 30-year-old man suspected of shooting her was fatally shot by a Pierce County sheriff’s deputy after he fired at them during a traffic stop just off Canyon Road.
The 30-year-old teacher, who was identified by her family as Jennifer Paulson, died at the scene. The school is closed for the day. A counselor has been brought in for staff members at the school.
Paulson’s family made a statement at the school. Paulson was single and had no children.
Paulson’s father identified the gunman as Jed R. Waits at the school. Law enforcement authorities have confirmed the identity. Waits was discharged from the Washington National Guard last April and disciplined several times while he was there, The News Tribune has learned.
Police spokesman Mark Fulghum said the suspect, who was from Ellensburg, and Paulson were acquaintances but not boyfriend-girlfriend.
The two met at Seattle Pacific University several years ago and worked together in the cafeteria, Fulghum said. He’d reportedly been stalking her since, according to court documents.
Paulson had gotten a civil anti-harassment order against Waits in September 2008. He was supposed to not contact her, not follow her and stay 1,000 feet from her house and Birney Elementary. Over the previous months, he had been leaving roses and teddy bears for her, according to court documents.
“About once a year, he would call me 10 to 15 times in a day,” Paulson wrote in the 2008 anti-harassment order. ” I would not return his calls until a few days later when I thought he was in a better state. He wouldn’t return my calls.”
A week ago, Paulson called 911 after noticing Waits was following her after she left Birney. She initially didn’t think much of it but, after several blocks, recognized the driver and called police, according to court documents.
Waits told officers he just wanted to talk to her.
Waits was booked into Pierce County Jail the night of Feb. 19 and charged Monday in Tacoma Municipal Court with violated the order. He was released Tuesday after posting $10,000 bail and was scheduled to appear in Tacoma Municipal Court again March 15.
Fulghum said the suspect had not previously had a gun. Investigators don’t yet know where he got the gun used this morning.
A teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, told The News Tribune the gunman had been stalking Paulson.
“We’ve been trying to watch out for him,” the teacher said.
Witnesses reported that Waits had been at the school for a couple of hours before Paulson arrived. He approached her outside the school, 1202 S. 76th St., about 7:35 a.m. No students were at the school at the time.
Waits fired several shots at Paulson and fled the scene, Fulghum said. Witnesses provided responding officers with a description of the suspect and his vehicle, including the license plate number.
A Pierce County sheriff’s deputy spotted the suspect’s vehicle going southbound on Canyon Road, sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said. The deputy got behind the car and, with the assistance of an undercover sheriff’s detective, initiated a traffic stop on Canyon Road.
Waits took off at a high-rate of speed. After about four blocks, he pulled over in a daycare parking lot on 166th Street.
“He came out with a semiautomatic handgun, he fired off a round,” Troyer said.
The deputy returned fire, killing Waits minutes before 8 a.m. It’s not immediately clear where Waits was going. The 37-year-old deputy, who has been on the force for 11 years, has been placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard procedure. The department will be reviewing the shooting.
The deputy reacted according to his training, Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor said at the scene.
“I don’t expect them to psychoanalyze what’s happening at a moment of danger,” he said.
No children at the day care were injured. They are safe and being released to their parents out a back door as the parents arrive.
Witnesses at the daycare parking lot report that Waits’ body has been covered with a tarp as children are released from the scene. The daycare also has been closed for the day.
“This is a situation that doesn’t cross your mind,” school district spokesman Dan Voelpel said. “You don’t think it’s going to happen and when it does, it knocks everybody flat.”
No one else was injured at the school.
The state Department of Labor & Industries sent investigators to the elementary school. The agency investigates all workplace deaths.
PREVIOUS POSTS
UPDATE: Outside Birney Elementary School, staff members are in tears. Superintendent Art Jarvis is hugging staff members as they arrive. A pastor who lives nearby walked over the school, with a Bible in his hand. As the teachers passed, he told them he was praying for them.
The school day doesn’t start until 9.
UPDATE 2: The daycare has been closed for the day. A Washington State Patrol trooper just escorted a handful of children from the center to their waiting parents.
The children are being released in small groups out the back of the building.
Reporter Mike Archbold said traffic is slow on Canyon Road.
UPDATE 3: Tacoma police detectives and forensics specialists are processing the crime scene at the elementary school.
One vehicle in the school parking lot has been taped off.
WITNESS ACCOUNT: A man who lives across from Birney Elementary heard the gunshots this morning.
Omar Moreno said after the two gunshots, he heard a woman screaming and saw the gunman run across Sheridan Avenue and got into a tan Honda sedan.
Moreno also saw an “older gentleman” running away from the gunman. Moreno said the gunman fired at the other gentleman.
A custodian came out of the school and said to call the police.
Staff writers Mike Archbold, Debbie Cafazzo and Adam Lynn provided information for this report.
Dont you think they should close the school today ????
This is tragic. But just because it happens at a school does not make it a “school shooting.” This sounds like a case of workplace domestic violence. School shooting implies that innocent kids were targeted by other kids or shooters.
Who cares how they categorize it. School shooting or not, kids are affected. Tacoma is becoming the most dangerous place on the planet. What is going on!
Who says that a “School shooting” involves innocent kids targeted by other kids or shooters? That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard all day… and its only 9am, so you have some time to be beat out Harald.
Who cares about the definition? And has there ever been a concrete definition of the term? You should submit it to Webster.
Someone went into a school, Shot a teacher = school shooting.
so much for a good friday.
This is really sad. I went there and still live just down the street. I really want to know what teacher it was….
Tacoma is becoming a sad place….
My children went to this school and I know the community. This is a sad incident but it is happening almost all over america.
Due to our Police officers our city is probably one of the safest.
It is getting worst because our society is getting worst but it doesnt come close to living in L.A. or Detroit. I have lived in both.
Prayer’s go out to the women’s family. Had this women been allowed to carry a gun with her on school grounds, she most likely would be alive today.
Another example of the weakness of restraining orders: they don’t protect anyone, just provide a device for punishing the violator. The person “protected by a restraining order” is not really protected from stalking at all, in fact the order just provides the stalker another aggravation to add to the rejection he already feels.
There should be much stronger protections and greater penalties … perhaps a “stalkers list” like the sex offenders list. Might be a pretty big list!
The teacher being allowed to carry a gun with her to school would not have saved her. Especially if he approached her from behind. Also what sort of message does that send our children? That the world is so violent that we must all carry guns just so we can shoot at each other? What should have happened is perhaps they should have kept him in jail longer then one night for violating the protection order she had against him.
Totally tragic! My prayers to the staff ,children and family. May God keep our officers safe also. This is an example of something that could have been avoided by the maximum bail possibly. She had a anti-harrassment order. Why was he allowed to continue these actions? He was too dangerous to be allowed to continue in this manner. He had no business even in this town with his past history of stalking her. I am lost for words to post further.
so sad. why did they let this idiot out of jail?? our liberal court system at work
Our daughter’s friend, fleeing a domestic violence situation, was told in a workshop (by the police, I think) that getting a restraining order doesn’t really work & often ups the ante to homicide.
There must be something that can be done to protect women (and men) in this situation. Making guns less available (who needs a semi-automatic) is one option–guns aren’t to blame, but other means of killing people are slower and more subject to interruption.
But ultimately, the solution has to be somehow changing the climate of violence that permeates our society. Reliable studies show that kids viewing violence on TV and in movies, as well as in their homes and neighborhoods, are more likely to be violent themselves. We as individuals and as a society need to reduce violence in the media and in our lives.
I have an interesting debate going on right now. Please feel free to come and share your feelings on gun control, bail, violating protective orders.
Facebook, Teresa mullins
A piece of paper doesn’t offer much protection, neither the Judge nor Police stand between you and your stalker. Better to also be able to defend your self by what ever means you find suitable.
My guess, this guy is another twisted sister that should have been confined long ago. Wait for the stories about him to come out. What happened with the National Guard; he must have been a real freak to have been booted out.
Very sad story. She’s in Gods hands now, pray for her family.
Any weapon is not the problem, it’s the person wielding that is. He had all the signs for not only posessing one to be cofined at Western State for the mentally ill. Siragwatkins making guns less available isn’t the answer. Evrytime someone gets stabbed and killed by a knife do you write to make knifes less available? Thought not! Vor you are right, in todays military they are allowing m.ore losers in because they can’t find anyone else. So, to have him discharged means he must have been a real pycho. People like that need to be locked up in Western State for rest of their lives.
A service to commemorate the life of Jennifer Paulson is scheduled for noon Tuesday at Life Center Church at 1717 S. Union Ave., Tacoma.
The public is invited.
re: Ryver_MystDragon says: February 26, 2010 at 11:45 am
The court followed protocol for this kind of case. Until the day he was arrested, he had done nothing more threatening than to call her, leave notes, flowers and teddy bears on her vehicle, and follow her from a distance. He hadn’t physically attacked her until today.
I would agree that the protocol followed was insufficient. It would behoove everyone here to write to Olympia and DEMAND stricter policies to be implemented.
re @ etagleppa says:February 26, 2010 at 9:02 am
You haven’t done much traveling…have you? Try living in Baghdad. Or Rwanda. Or Somalia.
Re: MCM says: February 26, 2010 at 10:47 am
Even if she were allowed to legally carry a firearm to school for her own protection, from what I’ve read about her so far…I sincerely doubt she would have done so.
This was a very religious young woman who, according to her parents and friends, had been praying for her tormentor for a couple of years.
Ryver_MystDragon…the children are already aware that this is a dangerous and violent world. They are already aware that some people carry firearms for self defense, and some carry them for offense.
This is why so many youngsters have been in trouble lately for bringing guns to school. And why so many have explained that they had been attacked, and bullied, or threatened by gang members, and that’s why they decided to bring a gun in their backpack.
Dragon…certain elements of the population have become so violent that other elements of the population have deemed it necessary to keep and carry firearms to be used in self defense against those who would attack us.
Certain of us are not content to hope that God hears our prayers, and will stand between us, and those who would harm us. Certain of us are willing to stand up in our own defense.
And while it is always possible that we will be taken unawares, or that we might lose the fight if attacked, at least we will not go down like lambs to the slaughter if we have the chance.
re: VOR
Waits was evidently prone to causing trouble and getting into trouble. He was disciplined a number of times. I haven’t thus far found an article which elaborates, but I have read that the Principal at the school Jennifer worked at had placed a call to Wait’s Commanding Officer regarding his persistent stalking of Ms.Paulson. And he was discharged last April.
What kind of message did it send to those children who knew and loved this teacher, Dragon, when she, an unarmed woman, was shot in cold blood by this murderer right in front of their school?
The message it sends is that if the sh*t ever heads your way, you’d better darned well be prepared to fight for your life.
That restraining orders are worth less than toilet paper, and only lead will stop a criminal dead in his tracks, and save your life , as lead saved the Deputy’s life today.
So…you think the answer is to lock up violent predators for the rest of their lives at Western State Hospital? Apparently that is not an option, as the good Gov. keeps releasing them by the droves from Western State and McNeil Island.
Consider if you will all of the poor walking wounded wandering the streets. Those inoffensive mentally ill people who harm nobody but themselves. If we don’t have the money to care for those who can’t care for themselves…where aer we going to come up with the money to board these criminals?
I’d rather see violent predators euthenized, and the prisons converted to treatment centers for the mentally ill and indigent.
Western State is running on insufficient funding as it is. That’s why the Gov. has been ordering the release of so many offenders from that institution, and from the prisons.
Do you see those poor people walking around talking to themselves? Most of them have never harmed a soul, but they are mentally incapable of providing for themselves. So they are reduced to begging, and scavenging.
I would rather see violent predators euthenized, and the prisons converted to care and treatment facilities for these mentally incapacitated individuals who cannot care for themselves.
Sorry about repeating myself. I thought the first comment about Western State was lost in cyberspace.
This is horrible. There are not enough good teachers out there, and she was a SPED teacher to boot. The father stated his son would never shoot anyone. Hello? Ground control to Major Tom…..Houston we have a problem. He was nailed for stalking, violated a restraining order, and shot someone. End of story. The saving grace….Tacoma Police took care of things again. Thank you. You know what you won’t see…..an angry, upset group of whites demanding retribution for the killing. Why? We have enough common sense to know that there are truly some bad apples out there and if they need to be dealt with in an extreme fashion, then so be it. Darwinism at its best.