Seattle Pacific University.
Students held a vigil after the shooting in 2014. Kelly O

After a long court battle, King County prosecutors have released footage of the Seattle Pacific University shooting to local media outlets. The shooting happened two years ago this month. A 27-year-old—who said he was inspired by the Columbine High School shooters—killed one student with a shotgun before being disarmed by a courageous building monitor named Jon Meis. Meis used pepper spray and then tackled the gunman while he reloaded.

I just read and watched the coverage at the Seattle Times, KING 5, KOMO News, and KIRO 7. The media outlets fought in court against an attorney for the university and a coalition of victims to obtain the footage—and ultimately won. The attorney had argued releasing the footage would re-traumatize victims and potentially lead to copycat shooters. Media outlets argued that victims of crime don't get to dictate coverage and the shooter contagion theory was overblown. I wrote a feature story about the arguments on both sides.

Now that the footage is out, students at Seattle Pacific University are enraged. A journalism student at the school is calling for a boycott. One arrived at the site of the shooting yesterday just as a KOMO camera crew was leaving—if he'd arrived earlier, he said, he would have told them to get out.




What did we learn from the coverage that wasn't already reported in 2014? Yes, it's one thing to watch how Meis stopped a mass shooting rather than have it described in words. But KIRO's presentation of the video, in particular, seems gratuitous: They didn't just show Meis tackling the gunman; they showed a girl getting shot. Was it worth it to publish the video over such strenuous objections from those most affected by the shooting?

I am not sure.