Everybody who goes to Seton Hall will remember the day when classmate Jessica Moore was shot and killed at an off-campus party.
For some, the memory is extremely personal. Seton Hall senior Shemeeka Greaves was at the Friday-night party on South Clinton Street in East Orange when a gunman began firing randomly into the crowd. She says she pulled six friends into a bathroom and dove out of a first floor window to avoid gunfire during the party. And she’s relieved to see the alleged shooter in custody.
“I’m glad someone was caught,” she said. “For everyone’s sake, besides just for the victims.”
As news of the shooting made national headlines Saturday morning, parents of Seton Hall students from across the country flooded the phone lines to check on their children.
By 10:30 a.m Francesa Monte said she had 7 missed calls and 3 voicemails from relatives.
“They knew about the whole story before I did,” she said.
As students went back to classes on Monday, trying to recapture a sense of normality, the topic was never far from anyone’s mind. But students differed on the how safe they feel on campus and off.
It is not uncommon for students to fall victim to crime when they venture outside Seton Hall’s gates. Around the same time of the shooting Friday evening, a former Seton Hall student was mugged at gunpoint in an unrelated incident near the intersections of Fairview Terrace and Gardner Avenue.
“In these desperate times people will do anything,” said freshman Francesca Monte of North Bergen. “We’re walking targets already being privileged college students in this area.”
“Local police do a good job at apprehending people quickly but don’t do a good job protecting students before things happen,” said Alexandra Cozic, a senior at Seton Hall from West Milford.
Greaves, who plans to graduate from the university in the spring, said she now understands security issues first hand. “Everything needs to be stepped up,” she says of street-level security. “I thought that before, but I guess someone needs to die to open eyes.”
Sergeant Andrew DiElmo, the public information officer for the East Orange Police Department, said last weekend’s shooting was an isolated incident and said crime was down by 76 percent since 2003.
Many students say they feel safe while on campus — especially since the school’s two security forces have stepped up security around the perimeter.
The university got high marks from junior Mark Piselli of Framingham, Massachusetts. “The school handled it great,” he said. “They kept people up to date and they had a prayer service Saturday evening for the victim.”
Sophomore Nikki Pontello of Key West, Florida worries about the university’s reputation being unfairly tarnished. “For people far away it gives the perception that Seton Hall is in a bad, bad area,” she said. “It makes my school seem dangerous.”
Students, meanwhile, continue to assess their own security decisions outside of the university gates.
“I’ve walked home from parties alone at night,” Piselli said. “But then again I haven’t done that since Saturday night so maybe I’ll think twice next time.”
Students have left tributes to Jessica Moore on a bulletin board in the student center. “Even on my saddest days you managed to put a smile on my face,” said one message, written in marker. “I miss you.”
Seton Hall will provide bus transportation to Moore’s funeral in Virginia on Saturday.
