As we've touched on,
details about the suspects are limited
right now because of Idaho laws and
how information in a case is released.
So yes, there are a lot of questions
that will need to wait for answers
until the legal process plays out.
But one thing that was confirmed
by Moscow Police Chief James Fry.
As we just told you,
Brian Koberger had been a teachers
assistant and graduate student in the
criminology program at Washington State.
And Pullman,
WA state is only 15 or 20 minutes
away from the University of Idaho.
In Moscow,
law enforcement was seen on campus at WSU.
Going through that office we talked
about and at the nearby campus
apartments looking there this afternoon,
I spoke with Washington state
journalism professor Matt Lovelace
about the situation at Washington
State and the thought that a teacher,
a student from the area,
is responsible for killing these four.
We began our chat, chat,
talking about the feel on the Palouse.
Does this bring relief or
further complicate at all?
Certainly
from some of the officers who I've known
for 15 years before this incident,
just a sense of relief.
Today is a good day.
That was from police Captain
Roger Lanier with Moscow.
He just goes, today is a good
day and you could just see
that relief community wide,
law enforcement, everybody around
here. Matt Lovelace is a journalism
professor at the Murrow School
at Washington State University.
He has navigated being a journalism
professor in the midst of incredible
tragedy while also reporting himself.
Lovelace captured these shots
of police on campus at wazoo.
Earlier where they searched an
office connected to the suspect,
Brian Koberger.
Well, when the news broke
that it was a WSU graduate
student, certainly that sent a
little bit of a personal shock to me.
First thing I did was I came
up to campus and I went there.
He's got an office in Wilson short
haul and that building is closed down.
Now, some context for that.
We're reduced operations for this week
and so just because of the holidays,
most buildings are.
Because I just,
I'm in the Murrah building right now.
The doors are unlocked.
So generally speaking,
we can still get inside.
They have that locked down.
But just thinking about the fact that he,
you know, just a few 100 yards away
from where I'm sitting talking to you now,
this is my office. You know,
talking to to people who work on campus.
Fellow faculty members.
Just the thought that he could have
been here even before this happened.
And certainly the unanswered
question which I posed right at
the end of the press conference,
is did he come back to school?
He was a graduate student.
And, you know,
I'm not passing on any reports.
I don't know for sure, but we want to know.
Did he come back to class?
Did he finish out the semester?
Was he here locally?
That's sort of like a lingering,
I don't know,
call it eerie feeling among all of us
who teach here and who knows walked by him.
What part of groups, what groups?
Was he a part of fear in town,
you know, social groups.
Did I next to them, you know,
having a drink at ricos,
all those little things that sort of
infiltrate your brain when you're,
you know, you've worked in the same place.
Was the guy,
after seven weeks of Internet sleuths,
going nuts about who's here and who did what?
I mean,
it's that has been a shocking
revelation for today,
even though it's not entirely impossible.
This is one of the largest employers
in the Blues and so stands to reason
that he could have been here.
But yeah,
it's just it's just wild to think about.
What
was the scene at the apartment like for you?
Is it pretty calm and quiet or what?
What was that like? Yeah, fairly calm. Few
members of the media there.
What appeared to me to be a handful of.
Residents from other units just sort of
standing outside watching things going on.
There wasn't a huge presence there.
I mean it's one of those apartment
complexes where there's like a basement
level and stairs to the first floor.
And second, you know,
we're full of those here at WSU and so
we just couldn't see much going on.
They were taking some things out of
the apartment and sort of putting
it on a little mezzanine there,
weight off the shoulders for sure.
And so I I think to your question,
it's just that, yeah,
I think that there is an
overwhelming sense of.
I don't know if it's closure
because it certainly isn't that,
like there's a lot left to
figure out about this case.
But it feels like the first time
in a long time that there's been
sort of a milestone in, you know,
other than reports of a Hyundai Elantra and,
you know, a few extra timeline details,
this really feels like the first
break in the case in in large degree.
And so, you know,
really.