On October 31, 2024 there was a shooting on the San Diego State University campus. This was following an already chaotic Halloween day in which a nearby brush fire caused traffic, power outages, and filled the air with smoke. Being an SDSU student myself, I experienced all of the confusion of this day. Not only that, but I’ve also heard the stories of many of my friends who each reacted differently to these alarming chain of events. I will be analyzing the stories of a few of these people, and showing how dramatic incidents like this impact the human experience.
An example of someone who was on campus at the time of the shooting was my roommate, finance major Alex Mora, who was in the middle of class when it happened. When asked how he first heard about the shooting, he said “the whole class was whispering… and then there was a girl in the corner of our class that all of the sudden broke out crying, and basically like everyone was talking about ‘oh my god, there was this shooting’ from seeing it from social media or other platforms online.” Alex and his classmates remained in lockdown in the classroom until 7:30 p.m. His story reflects the general panic and unease of people when there is an active threat. People seek more information when unsure of their own safety. In this case, everyone turned to social media and texted their friends to find out what was going on.
Because of the wildfire, it put many people in awkward situations when the shooting happened. Another one of my friends, aerospace engineering major Ethan Foote, discussed what it was like to hear about the shooting while avoiding the fire. On the way back from a grocery trip, he learned that the power had gone out in his apartment building, so he chose to go off campus to see a movie instead. “We’re sitting in the movie…and then we just hear ‘there’s a police blockade, there’s three shooters, and someone got stabbed’…so yeah that was kinda trippy,” Ethan recalled, describing the phone notifications he got while at the movie. In response, he chose to stay off campus until things calmed down. This shows how crime doesn’t just affect the people directly involved, but sends waves through a community and makes people find new ways to thrive. While the fire, power outage, and shooting completely screwed up his day, Ethan made the most of it by finding fun ways to spend his time off campus.
The shooting also heavily affected Halloween activities, which is normally one of the biggest nights of the year. “I was bummed that we weren’t able to do stuff on campus anymore. I just didn’t feel safe really that night,” said hotel and tourism management major Megan Gibson, who had planned on going out with friends that night. Regardless, Megan still found ways to enjoy Halloween outside of the unsafe atmosphere. “We were still able to make the best of it. We got to walk around San Diego downtown and explore and hang out.” Halloween is a time for people to express themselves, and people still found ways to do that despite being put in a rough situation.
Large crimes like this bring fear and panic to those around them. They are harmful to not only those directly involved, but also to people in the community who must then fear for themselves and those close to them. This one crime shut down many events, parties, and businesses for the rest of the day. In spite of all of this, people moved forward anyway. Alex, Ethan, and Megan all expressed to me that they were concerned about the situation as it was happening, but that they still found ways to enjoy their Halloween in the face of this. People will always have an inclination to fear for their safety when confronted with danger, but they will also have an inclination to find meaning through personal expression.
Hi Ryan!
Wonderful topic choice – this day was such a visceral and memorable experience for the entire SDSU community, and I’m glad you took this opportunity to connect it to our class content and share students’ experiences with a wider audience. Having quotes and experiences directly from other students helped amplify your portrait of this day, showing the different responses people had. I remember walking to class and seeing an enormous plume of smoke when the brush fire had begun, I was so confused and scared but continued walking to class. I called my mom on my walk to ensure her that I was safe if she’d heard about the fire, and that was all I thought to do other than carry on as usual. I went to my scenic design lab, talked with my classmates about the fire when I arrived, and then the class continued as usual. This was the most baffling part to me because there seemed to be such a lack of panic. I saw so many students with their phones out, taking photos and videos of the orange sky shrouded in smoke, but no one seemed visibly panicked about the fact that it looked like part of our campus was on fire. I can’t speak to the amount of panic on campus when the shooting took place later that day, as I was off campus seeing a musical at Diversionary Theatre. From my perspective, though, it felt like a fever dream. I checked in with my friends who were sheltered in place on campus, but I still could not really wrap my mind around the severity of what was going on. It did make me immediately grateful to have been off campus and safe, and that all my friends were safe as well. I had people reaching out to me that I hadn’t spoken to in years to check that I was okay, so if there’s any silver lining from this day, it’s the reminder of human resilience and community in the face of tragedy.
Although I was not on campus for most of this day, the events were still very scary. My friend and I decided to go surfing in Mission Beach on the morning of Halloween. For several hours we were at the beach without our phones. When we got back to the car I went on my phone and saw a ton of my friends posting about the fire near campus. My friend and I started to drive back to campus, but the traffic from the fire made the 20 minute drive take 2 and a half hours. By the time we were getting somewhat close to campus, we started receiving updates about the active shooters. Now we were really freaking out and didn’t know what to do. My friend was supposed to drop me off at home, but we decided to go to her place which is a little farther from campus so that we would be safer. We ended up spending the night at our friend’s family home because we were all a little freaked out by the events of the day. This was definitely a scary Halloween and one that I will not forget.
I remember the shooting and fire very vividly. That day, I was walking to work at the gym and I saw a lot of people looking at me, except they weren’t looking at me, they were looking behind me. The cloud of smoke was humongous and the sky turned all orangey. It was scary to think about the fire spreading and my friends live in what was the evacuation zone so I was worried about them and where they were going to go and do. But as my work shift was ending, my worry switched to another problem. Another worker at the gym from a different department ran up to me and told me the gym was going on lock down. I am the supervisor for my department and was given the responsibility of making sure everyone was ok before our bosses were able to be reached. Because of the lack of communication from the school, the whole situation was terrifying. Not even being a supervisor, but just being someone who has to tell people what to do during a situation like that is scary. Everyone is looking at you to tell them the right thing when you don’t even know what the right thing is. I 100 percent believe my view and role during the shooting contributed to my need to stay in for the night on Halloween. People were acting like it was no big deal, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of “what if?”.
I found it very interesting to read how each person dealt with the incident from their perspective. It made me think about how social media and physical distance can make us disassociate from the actuality of a situation. I was at the sight of the actual shooting when it occurred and had to run from the gunshots back to my house. I ran into the police who were on site due to the fire and was one of the first ones to inform them of the situation. After telling my roommates, they were freaked out but ultimately went out later that night. I stayed in after the events of the day, re-running scenarios in my head. I think as seen in the instance of Ethan, it is easier to distance oneself from crime and violence when we read the events through a screen rather than hearing about it in person.
I also attend SDSU, and that day was incredibly frightening. After reading your article and the comments from others who lived through it, I still find it hard to believe that it actually happened. It almost felt unreal, but unfortunately, it was all too real. I remember being on campus working when, all of a sudden, I noticed the sky darkening. I thought, “There’s no way the sun is setting already,” so I checked the time and realized it was still early. Then I started hearing whispers, and that’s when I found out there was a fire, with the smoke causing the sky to look dark. On my way home, it was surreal to see so much smoke. The traffic was a nightmare, with streets closed off, making the drive even worse. Once i settled at home, the flood of emails about the shooting started coming in, and I was in complete shock. Thankfully, I made it home safely, but seeing the fear on social media as people reported what was happening left me feeling so unsettled. That day really hit for me how anything can happen at any moment, and how important it is to stay aware of your surroundings.
I remember these events happening, as if they were yesterday. I was on my way to english at 2pm when I saw the plume of smoke, almost signaling what was yet to come for the rest of the night. It was very apocalyptic. How you included the different perspectives of Alex, Ethan, and Megan reminded me how different people react in the face of chaos. A single event can have a significant impact on the community, bringing people together out of fear. Specifically, Alex’s story made me think about how quickly panic can spread, especially when information is limited and how instinctively people seek clarity and safety. Ethan’s experience demonstrates the adaptability of people when they feel disrupted, finding ways to make the most out of a chaotic day. I relate to their experiences, clinging to my friend and social media for information. However, bringing the community together in chaos shows the strength and creativity of the human spirit in difficult situations.
Thank you for shedding light on the Halloween incident on campus. To me it was almost incomprehensible how such a horrid chain of events can occur on the one day of the year that is supposed to have an underlying spooky theme. I recall finishing up getting ready to start my day and then noticing orange light shining into my room. I looked outside and saw the sky was orange due to the brush fire. Later on in the day I was stuck in the library until about 7:30pm due to the on campus shootings. It is a relief to learn about the different stories mentioned in the article and how students were able to still find comfortable during a difficult time. It was a terrifying sequence of events, a day that I believe will not be forgotten for years to come.
Hi Ryan, I enjoyed reading your article. It was really compelling hearing about other people’s experience on that day. I personally was at home when the events took place, but I had friends on campus so I was very scared for them. I agree with your point on “sending waves throughout the community.” No matter where someone was during the lockdown, everyone still felt affected by it in some way. It is terrifying to think that such violence can happen on a school campus. The fact that the wildfire happened the same day made things even more surreal. Not to mention that fact it was Halloween, which already is a spooky holiday. One of my roommates considered still going out that night even after the events, and I warned her it was probably not a great idea and that we should stay in instead. My other roommate was so shocked by the shooting that she decided to go home for Thanksgiving break an entire week early. She was afraid that something else would happen. Luckily, during the actual shooting, we were all safe at home, but many weren’t. One of my friends was at the mini ARC in the union, and they all hid in the storage closet until later that evening. It was a scary experience for her, she recalled. The events that took place on October 31st will hopefully make people more aware of their surroundings and personal safety.
As an SDSU student myself I wanted to add to this article by sharing my own experience on that Halloween day. On the morning of the 31st, I woke up and went to run some errands, on my way home, I saw large plumes of smoke rising from the direction of the university campus which at points was blocking out the sun and creating an odd orange tint to the world. As I drove closer I saw that it was very close to campus and began to panic. It took me almost an hour and a half to drive through campus to my home just to find out that my neighborhood was under mandatory evacuation. Once I was home I threw together a few important items for the car but quickly realized that it would take me hours to attempt to evacuate and leave my neighborhood. My housemates and I stayed in and monitored the fire but very quickly were left without power and no way out. To try and ease the anxiety of this situation we carved some pumpkins in the front yard to celebrate Halloween but were interrupted by a roommate running outside and telling me that I should come inside because there were active shooters on campus. Looking back on this experience that so many of us shared, I felt like my sense of safety at SDSU was negatively affected. I realized how important it is to maintain a sense of awareness and to be prepared for anything.
Hi Ryan, really interesting article! I enjoyed reading about the different experiences of people you know and how they reacted to the shooting and the fire on Halloween this year. One of my roommates was actually near the shooting when it happened, and I will never forget the panicked phone call I received from her and she told me that she heard gunshots in her vicinity. Thankfully, she remained unharmed and got home safely, but the next few hours left us all on edge as we awaited news about the suspects. Strangely enough, a few hours prior, one of my friends living in a building near the fire had to evacuate and she was staying with us until they were cleared to go back into the building. It was quite confusing and alarming when one source was telling her to evacuate while another was warning her to stay indoors to avoid the shooter. I agree with you that people find meaning in situations like this, as we all still had a fun night staying indoors with each other as company instead of going out like we had originally planned.