Some recalled their disbelief on 9/11. Others revisited the night a university student drove into a crowd. Monday’s tragedy again has broken the Good Land’s heart.

By Tuesday, the mourners gathered to pray at St. Raphael’s Church – short miles from the postal processing plant – the scene of six reported murders and one apparent suicide.

Still shaken, Goleta resident Yolanda Perez would remember driving on Highway 101 Monday evening just after nine. One ambulance, then another, whizzed past. Her first thought was of “an accident in Gaviota.”

Perez took her usual exit to go home in El Encanto Heights, and was quickly struck by the amount of “activity in the area.” Disregarding the turmoil around her, she tuned to a television newscast out of Los Angeles.

“I was dumbfounded,” Perez said. “I couldn’t believe it. I have a cousin who works the night shift there. I was very worried about him. I didn’t find out until a little later his shift started at eleven, so he was okay.”

The details quickly unfolded in reports about the shootings. Between phone calls, Perez stayed glued to the news. But she started worrying more, and then more, for those a mile away.

“I was feeling absolute shock – that this was in Goleta – and in my neighborhood. Then I was afraid for the other postal workers, and those in Camino Real. They hadn’t found the gunman yet.”

Dale Dellar, the owner of the Kahuna Grill in the Camino Real Marketplace, had just finished closing up the restaurant on this slow Monday night. He, too, fell into a familiar pattern, driving toward the exit kitty-corner from the mail processing plant.

“When I headed toward Storke Road I thought there was an accident,” Dellar said. “There were flares everywhere. I saw flashing lights and emergency vehicles so I did a one-eighty and went out on Hollister.”

Taking his usual route to his home near Turnpike, Dellar turned on the radio. A broken antenna limited his reception to one station — KTYD. He was soon walking in the house.

“My son mentioned something was going on, so my wife and I turned on the television,” he said. “We saw reports of two confirmed dead, and possibly three.” Then the phone rang. It was Dellar’s daughter in Azusa, checking on her father.
“This is surreal,” said Dellar, reflecting on the events while at work. “People are quiet. Maybe they’re dazed or numb, like right after 9-11.”

UCSB senior Sam Havens also got a call from the Los Angeles area Monday night. He had switched shifts with someone at Gina’s Pizza in the Marketplace, in order to study for a big math test.

“My mom called,” Havens said. “There was a shooting,’ she said. I had to stop her. ‘No, mom, I didn’t get shot.’ She sounded freaked out. She worries a lot. At first I thought she was being ridiculous.”

Havens took the mid-term Tuesday on campus. Most of his classmates seemed too preoccupied with the exam to want to talk about much else. And he still hadn’t processed the events with all six roommates at their rental house on Trigo Road in Isla Vista.

“I didn’t really think about it until Tuesday,” Havens said. “It didn’t sink in. I wasn’t as worried as I should have been. Then I heard more. Three had died, then six, and then seven. I feel a little self-centered focusing on that test. But I’m much less critical of my mother.”

By the time Holly Goforth arrived to open up Blenders in the Grass in the Marketplace, she feared for her own safety. Driving down from Santa Maria, Goforth had listened to reports on KHAY radio about “`a sad story of an apparent murder suicide in Goleta.’”

It was still dark in the shopping center. “I was scared. There was no conclusion — only this shooting incident. I walked around the driveway in the back (of Blenders) with my flashlight. I don’t like to carry mace. I kept the doors locked. I’ve never been in this situation before. It’s not fun.”

The owners of Anna’s Marketplace Bakery also arrived before Tuesday’s dawn. Law enforcement officers had already been by to pick up a breakfast order. They’d rapped on the windows at 3 a.m., getting the attention of bakers in the kitchen.
The police said they “were just getting started,” said Lisa Boelter at Anna’s. “I’m stunned. This was right across the street.” Co-owner Debbie Weber added, “Like everyone else, we’re terribly shocked.”

Counseling specialist Drew Kawiecki, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel, was called to the scene Monday night at the Sheriff’s Department request. He could not break confidences, instead speaking in broad terms.