S3 Ep8: Thurston High School Shooting, Part 1

Small Town Dicks

Audio 99

True Crime, Paul Holes, History, Small Town, Yeardley Smith, Society & Culture, Police

4.7 • 9.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 November 2018

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

(Part 1/2) This is the Thurston School shooting through the eyes of the Springfield police officer who was first on the scene that morning, as well as one of the detectives who arrived minutes later to help process the carnage. We also sit down for a rare interview with one of the students who survived being shot that day.

Special Guests

Officer Donnie was a police officer in Springfield, Oregon for almost 12 years. While he was there he spent three years on the SWAT team, two years as an auto theft detective, and two years as an undercover narcotics detective. In 1998, he was a first responder to the Thurston High School shooting and assisted with taking the shooter into custody. In 1999, he was awarded the City of Springfield and the State of Oregon Medal of Honor for his actions during a critical incident in the line of duty. He retired from law enforcement in 2007.

Detective Don recently retired after serving in law enforcement for over 30 years. Don spent much of his career as a detective but also served on SWAT and as a Hostage/Crisis Negotiator.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Due to the historical significance of this case, we are breaking with our usual protocol of keeping locations and identities anonymous,
0:13.0	because the who, how, and where of the events that occurred on May 21, 1998, continue to have devastating repercussions in communities across the country
0:22.7	even 20 years later. Though this crime took place in a small town in Oregon, within hours
0:29.8	it had made national headlines for the number of victims involved, as well as the sheer
0:34.9	boldness of the crime committed by a high school student named Kip Kinkle.
0:41.2	Kinkle had been suspended from school the day before he shot his parents. The following morning,
0:47.4	he drove to his high school in Springfield, Oregon, and opened fire on a packed cafeteria
0:52.8	where students often gathered before their classes began.
0:57.0	Though Thurston is not the first school shooting in the U.S., many in law enforcement consider
1:02.5	it the unofficial beginning of the past two decades of high-profile shootings in our country.
1:08.4	If only for the fact that one year after Thurston, it would be revealed
1:13.0	that the Columbine school shooters had used Kip Kinkle's plan as a blueprint for their own massacre.
1:20.2	But this episode is not a profile of the killer. As always, our interest lies with the people
1:27.0	who investigate these crimes.
1:29.1	So this is the Thurston School shooting through the eyes of the Springfield police officer
1:34.0	who was first on the scene that morning, as well as one of the detectives who arrived minutes later
1:39.6	to help process the carnage.
1:42.0	And finally, we sit down for a rare interview
1:44.5	with one of the students
1:45.7	who survived being shot that day.
1:48.8	This is Thurston, a high school shooting.
1:53.4	I'm Yardley.
	...

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