Nearly a year after a University of Wyoming student killed two other students before killing himself near campus, officials say they can better identify and help troubled students who may violently lash out.
But parents of two victims of the July 16 attacks doubt the university is doing all it can to save students from dying at the hands of a classmate.
“Due to what has happened in the past at the University of Wyoming, we have no faith in them making the really hard decisions,” Steve Carlson said last week. “As a parent, I would be petrified to send my child to the University of Wyoming.”
The university has threatened asking for criminal action against Carlson for writing an angry e-mail to the school president. But Carlson, a Denver County sheriff’s deputy, said that won’t derail his effort to get top university officials fired for what, he says, was their inaction after Justin Geiger exhibited previous dangerous behavior.
Carlson’s daughter – 19-year-old Amber, a John F. Kennedy High School graduate – liked the UW campus because it was small and neighborly.
She also became close friends with the 19-year-old Geiger, a former athlete from Rockton, Ill. Geiger was living in a house two blocks from campus with four others – two roommates had gone out of town the weekend of the attacks.
Police said Amber, who was visiting the house, walked into a room in the early-morning hours of July 16 to find the body of 20-year-old Adam Towler, who was also visiting friends at the house.
Geiger had stabbed Towler to death and then shot Amber with a single shot to the head with a high- powered rifle. Geiger used the rifle to fatally shoot himself, police said.
Geiger also sexually assaulted a male housemate, who survived Geiger’s knife attack to flee the house for help.
Carlson and his wife, Julie, as well as Towler’s parents – Brian and Shelley Towler – say the university knew about Geiger’s erratic and dangerous behavior during the 2005-06 school year. But they did nothing to get him help or to keep him from other students, they say.
“There were warning signs even up to the end,” Steve Carlson said. “But they totally dropped the ball with this kid.”
Geiger, Carlson said, vandalized a bathroom after fighting with another student, threw a knife at a residence hall assistant and was transferred to a new dorm because of a possession of alcohol charge. Police, however, were never notified nor were his parents, he said.
“There was no communication to anyone concerning Justin’s explosive temper and no cautions advised,” Carlson said.
“In this case,” Shelley Towler said, “there were warning signs after warning signs, but they (the university) didn’t react.”
University officials, however, said they made every appropriate response to Geiger’s behavior, including calling the police about the alcohol possession charge. Those incidents did not indicate he was prone to the type of violence that unfolded in July, school officials said.
“We did everything we could have given what we knew,” said Sara Axelson, the university’s vice president of student affairs.
Geiger’s parents were not notified of his problems in the dorm. Once Geiger was moved to a new dorm in October 2005, he stayed out of trouble, Axelson said.
After the attacks, the university reviewed its security policies and made some upgrades, she said, including updating safety notifications to students and faculty and re-emphasizing the importance of reporting unusual behavior.
The Carlsons say university officials were dismissive of their complaints, prompting Steve Carlson to send stinging e-mails to faculty and staff – including university president Tom Buchanan. “You are a liar and poor excuse for a human being,” Carlson said in an e-mail to Buchanan.
Carlson also told the university he would warn new students about the dangers on campus during freshman orientation.
The e-mail prompted a letter from Rick Miller, the university’s vice president of legal affairs, saying Carlson could face charges of harassment and intimidation if he kept it up.
“University employees … understand they may be subject to criticism, and possibly harsh criticism,” Miller said. “However, University employees, whatever their duties, must not be subject to abuse.”
Carlson said he is not backing down. Shelley Towler, meanwhile, credits Buchanan with pushing hard for increased school safety.
But most universities, including UW, still don’t do enough to make sure the students who attend their classes are not dangerous, Towler said.
“There are kids rooming with other kids in these dorms and no one, not the university, knows who they are or what they have done,” Towler said. “In this case, I think there were big warning signs, but they were ignored.”
Staff writer Monte Whaley can be reached at 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com.
THE KILLER
Justin Geiger
Assaulted a male housemate, then killed two students before shooting himself.
THE VICTIMS
Amber Carlson
Denver woman discovered the body of a fellow student before she was shot in the head.
Adam Towler
Parents say the university failed to act on “warning signs after warning signs” about Geiger.
