Six months later, HUB shooting remembered

Today is the six-month mark since Jillian Robbins killed one University student and seriously injured another after opening fire with a high-power rifle on the HUB lawn. But not even the medicine of a half year can heal some of the wounds inflicted that day.

"I heard the shooting, but didn't see anything, and didn't realize it was gunfire. It sounded like a chemistry class explosion," said Pehanich (sophomore-hotel, restaurant and institution management). "I kept walking, and when I looked up, I saw (Robbins) laying on the ground. It was like everything was in slow-motion -- no one knew what to do, so no one did anything."

When she got back to her apartment, Pehanich said she immediately called her mother.

"I told her what had happened and what I had seen, and she convinced me to see a counselor on campus," Pehanich said. "It was the best thing I ever did."

Pehanich said will never forget what happened and that she has changed since the tragedy.

"I've realized more about the world," she said.

Delorse Homan, a staff assistant in the dean's office of the College of Health and Human Development, was working at her desk in the Henderson Building at the time of the shooting.

"As soon as I heard the sound, I thought it was gunfire," Homan said.

She told the people in her office someone had fired a gun outside, but no one believed her. But when they heard the yelling and screaming, they all ran to the office windows and saw people running everywhere, Homan said.

Then she watched as Nicholas Mensah was shot.

"I could tell that he had been hit right away. He grabbed at his stomach and went down to his knees," Homan said.

"I walk into work every morning at 8:30 a.m., which was pretty close to the time of the shooting," she said. "I don't feel like I can just always walk looking straight ahead anymore."

Mensah has since withdrawn from the University, but said he will be back for the Fall Semester.

"I try not to, but I think about what happened a lot," Mensah said. "I just want to recuperate and get myself back to normal."

He said he has experienced a lot of stomach pain since the shooting. He also has problems with his eyes due to a reaction to the medication he was given after one of the two stomach surgeries.

Mensah, an avid soccer player, has not been able to run because of the injuries.

"For a long time I wasn't even able to walk, and now each day I enjoy just being able to go outside and walk -- I'll walk for five minutes one day, then try to improve my stamina the next," he said.

At first Mensah didn't know if he would be able to return to the University. He returned for the first time three weeks ago.

"I stayed there for a week. I felt very uncomfortable for a few of those days. When I walked onto campus again, it didn't feel the same. I kept thinking that there might be someone around to shoot me again," Mensah said.

"I'm not 100-percent yet, but I'll be all right," he said. "I won't let something like (the shooting) stop me from going back."

Brendon Malovrh, the student hero who disarmed the alleged sniper, said he is hardly affected by the incident.

"I think I was one of the least affected emotionally by the shooting," Malovrh (senior-aerospace engineering) said. "I comforted friends who were more deeply moved by the incident, and that, in turn, brought me comfort."

As Malovrh was walking on the HUB lawn that morning, he heard the shooter fire five bullets from the rifle. He said he then saw smoke coming up from a nearby bush. When he walked over, he said he saw Robbins trying to reload a 7mm Mauser rifle, a high-power military weapon.

"I said to myself, 'Wait a second, that's a gun,' " Malovrh said. "I stood there and we made eye contact for a second, and I think she was wondering what I was going to do.

"When I went towards her I think she started to point the gun at me, but I was able to pull it from her. When I later saw the gun laying on the ground, I noticed that there was still one bullet in the chamber. That freaked me out."

Robbins then allegedly swiped at Malovrh with a knife, but when he stepped out of the way, he said she stabbed herself in the leg. Malovrh said he took the belt off his pants and tied it around her leg to stop the bleeding.

"If it had gotten to blows I may have reacted differently, but the whole thing happened so fast it didn't hit me at the time," he said. "It was just someone who was hurt."

As for all the media attention and hero status Malovrh attained after the shooting, he admitted, "Truthfully, it stroked my ego a bit. But it didn't last too long, and it's all gone now. It was interesting."

Malovrh, who was recently granted a heroism award by the Kiwanis International Foundation, has decided to attend graduate school for aerospace engineering at the University next fall.

Of the five shots Robbins fired that morning, two of them hit students. One killed University junior Melanie Spalla and one wounded Mensah.

Fragments of a bullet were later found in the backpack of Kerry Butler (sophomore-division of undergraduate studies). Another bullet grazed the backpack of Bill Mocker.

When Mocker was walking to his 9:45 class, he witnessed the shooting, but it was not until later that day he realized how closely he came to being hit.

When he slipped his backpack off his shoulders later that day, he noticed two 4-inch marks and damage caused by a bullet.

"After I saw that, and the realization that I had been so close to being killed, I was angry and I was shocked -- I was all the words you could possibly think of," Mocker told The Daily Collegian a few days after the shooting.

Two bullets were found downtown, one at a church and another in an apartment building. Police said one of them may have first passed through the backpack.

One bullet was found in St. Paul's United Methodist Church, 109 McAllister Way. The other bullet may have been found in an eighth-floor Penn Tower apartment.

Dennis Calla, a resident of 810 Penn Tower apartments, 255 E. Beaver Ave., said his roommate found the bullet sitting on books in his bedroom. Calla was in the shower at the time of the shooting.

"I guess it just kind of bounced around and landed on some books by a window," Calla said. "I think the chance of getting hit were slim, but it's still kind of freaky."