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| Mary Ann Zakrzewski held a picture of her late husband, Wally, who was a security guard at Virginia Wesleyan College where he was murdered last October.
(Delores Johnson/The Virginian-Pilot) |
By Bill Burke
The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH - Members of the Virginia Wesleyan College community have long regarded their campus as a tree-shrouded oasis of tranquility in spite of its location near the population center of South Hampton Roads.
That changed Oct. 11 when Walter J. "Wally" Zakrzewski, one of the college's unarmed security guards, was killed by a knife-wielding attacker while making nighttime rounds on campus. It is the only homicide in the college's 41-year history.
Nearly seven months later, as the school year draws to a close, unanswered questions haunt the case: Who was the killer and why did he or she strike? Does an unarmed security force provide adequate protection on a sprawling, open campus in an urban area? Could Zakrzewski have fended off his attacker if he had been trained in police tactics or were carrying a gun?
While police are mum on the first question - no one has been arrested in the crime - Zakrzewski's widow, Mary Ann, has hired attorneys to try to
get answers to the others. Depending on what they learn, legal action against the college is possible, she said.
Wally Zakrzewski - white-haired, 57 and a grandfather - had no law enforcement experience. He was trained only in technical points of state and constitutional law "and how to write incident reports" before putting on his badge and uniform and reporting for duty July 4, his widow said.
She said he received no instruction in subduing criminal suspects or executing defensive maneuvers.
"This is a tragedy that could possibly have been be avoided," she said.
Mary Ann Zakrzewski has an ally in making that case: the man who was her husband's boss when he was killed.
Leo R. Therrien was chief of campus security for six years before retiring in February. He said he had long lobbied college officials to hire armed, sworn officers to patrol the campus, to no avail.
Therrien said that if Wally Zakrzewski had gotten the same training in defensive tactics sworn police officers receive, "he probably would be alive today."
Therrien, a former Portsmouth policeman, said an armed officer would have stood a good chance against an assailant with a knife, even if surprised.
"I damn well know I could've pulled my weapon out and done some damage before they got me," he said.
For now, the college will continue using unarmed security officers, with an armed off-duty Virginia Beach police officer joining in late-night patrols beginning with the 2007-08 school year in August.
Officers with guns are simply not part of the Wesleyan tradition, officials say.
"People feel comfortable here. It feels like home," said David
Buckingham, dean of students. "We don't want to make people feel like they're imprisoned."
Buckingham noted that several other private colleges in Virginia also employ unarmed security officers, while state-financed institutions use armed campus police. Virginia Wesleyan is the only college in southeastern Virginia that has no sworn officers.
Among the colleges with no armed, sworn officers is the private Washington and Lee University in Lexington. But times are changing, said Michael L. Young, W&L's director of public safety. Young has 40 years of experience in law enforcement.
"A lot of people are having the discussion over the pros and cons of being armed and unarmed," Young said. The April 16 shooting rampage at Virginia Tech - in which 33 people died, including the killer - "brought it to the forefront."
He said a college law enforcement organization he once headed is working with the state Department of Criminal Justice Services on a program to train unarmed security officers at Virginia's colleges. There are currently no such requirements, he said.
Young said Virginia Wesleyan "had an incident that it seems to me would have justified at least investigating using armed officers. If they're not looking into it, that's too bad."
Meanwhile, the 2006-07 school year will be remembered for tragedies on campuses in Hampton Roads and, on a greater scale, in Blacksburg. At Virginia Tech, officials know who the killer was, if not why he killed.
At Virginia Wesleyan, no one knows who or why.
It was early afternoon on Oct. 11 when "Officer Wally," as he had come to be known on campus, pinned on badge No. 17, kissed his wife goodbye and headed to work. They had celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary four days earlier.
Mary Ann said Wally, a Chicago native who disliked the warm, muggy summers in Hampton Roads, was happy that cool weather had finally arrived. He didn't even wear a jacket over his uniform when he left for Wesleyan.
Ever since his first day on the job, he had worked the 3-to-11 p.m. shift. He carried a radio, a flashlight, handcuffs and a telescoping baton as he made his rounds. He was not yet certified to use pepper spray, so he did not have any, Therrien said.
Therrien's phone rang late that night. One of his men, Sgt. Victor Dorsey, was on the line. He managed to get out one word: "Wally." Then he began sobbing.
When Therrien arrived on campus, emergency vehicles were everywhere.
Officers had secured an area at the Boyd Dining Center, where Zakrzewski's body had been found. His last radio transmission had come in at 9:47 p.m.
Therrien later learned that the officer had been stabbed multiple times; there were defense wounds on his arms.
Virginia Beach police investigated the case, even though the Wesleyan campus straddles the Norfolk-Virginia Beach city line. Police have never released the cause of death, though it is widely known within the Wesleyan community. A police spokeswoman said this week the investigation "is active and ongoing."
Police began collecting pocketknives from employees, including security guards, for forensic testing. Therrien offered up his voluntarily.
Police also asked employees if they would submit to polygraph exams. All but one security guard said yes, Therrien said. The person who declined did so for "religious or medical reasons," Therrien said.
None of the tests or interviews yielded a suspect, as far as Therrien knows. He said that because he is a security guard, not a sworn police officer, Virginia Beach police have not discussed the case with him.
Zakrzewski was a statistical rarity. Only one other paid campus law enforcer died in the line of duty in the United States in 2006, a University of Mississippi officer who was dragged to his death by a driver he stopped for speeding 10 days after Zakrzewski's slaying.
On Oct. 19, eight days after Zakrzewski died, some 200 people showed up at Opyt's Funeral Home in the Hegewisch community, tucked in the southeast corner of Chicago. It is a quiet and safe neighborhood community founded by Polish immigrants, including Zakrzewski's forebears.
Among those who came to say goodbye was James A. O'Rourke, a retired policeman who had known the Zakrzewskis for years. At the viewing, his old friend Wally looked at peace in a striped shirt, his white hair carefully combed into place.
"They were a wonderful family," O'Rourke said in a recent interview.
"They had a perfect house, a three-bedroom ranch with a manicured lawn."
Zakrzewski had worked in a Chicago steel mill for more than 30 years before being laid off as the industry constricted, O'Rourke said.
"The poor guy should never have been hired for that position," O'Rourke said of the security job. "He had no background in law enforcement."
O'Rourke, a cop for 30 years, believes Zakrzewski, who had umpired Little League and coached youths in baseball and football, probably happened upon a burglary when he unlocked a door near a loading dock at the rear of the dining center.
He said an officer's badge and uniform can be a lightning rod for trouble: "For some bad guys, the stakes rise when they see a guy in uniform."
O'Rourke said he has done stints as a campus security officer during his career but always wore a gun on his hip.
The neighborhood where the Zakrzewskis lived on South Saginaw Avenue is so safe that no police patrol cars are based there, according to a Chicago news report. The population includes many former municipal workers - including cops like O'Rourke - and old hands in the steel mills, like Zakrzewski.
Zakrzewski spoke fondly of his new home-to-be before he and Mary Ann left for Virginia, O'Rourke said.
"Wally made it sound like the end of the rainbow, the promised land," he said. "But there's no promised land. Crime is everywhere."
Shortly after the killing, the Wesleyan administration increased security patrols, temporarily hired extra officers from a local security company and announced the creation of a task force to look into possible improvements in campus safety.
Officials also announced they were continuing safety procedures that had already been initiated, including pruning trees and bushes and improving campus lighting.
The college began an "Officer Wally" fund to solicit donations for Zakrzewski's family. It raised more than $4,000. The college offered a $25,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the killer.
The Board of Trustees has implemented several of the task force's recommendations, including hiring additional security officers - there are now 22 on campus - as well as increasing pay for guards on night shifts, replacing external locks on buildings and ending the practice of using security officers to provide transportation for students to the airport.
And starting Aug. 25, an armed Virginia Beach police officer will join campus security on patrol every day from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.
"Everyone is comfortable with what's being done," said Elaine Kastelberg, who co-chairs the college Parents Council with her husband, James, and was a member of the safety task force.
Kastelberg, of Hanover, said a large group of parents discussed campus safety at a meeting on campus last month and "they did not feel the need for armed officers on campus."
Buckingham, the dean of students, concurred: "Having armed officers is not part of our culture. We didn't want to make that change."
As the college's former security chief, Therrien has a different take on the subject, in spite of the fact that serious crimes are rare at Wesleyan. In 2005, the most recent year campus crime data are available, there were 140 liquor law violations at Wesleyan, four weapons violations and two sex offenses.
He said he suggested that Wesleyan hire a sworn, armed police chief to supervise the security staff. That would mean more credibility for the department, a more effective liaison with local police agencies and the opportunity for grants, he said. Bridgewater College in western Virginia, like Wesleyan a small, private institution, uses such a program.
"They don't want guns on campus, because they're afraid it will shock the conscience," Therrien said of his former employer. "What shocks the conscience is losing somebody and not having anything to show for it.
"It still weighs very heavy on me that I lost an officer on duty."
To honor Zakrzewski, Therrien constructed a shadow box that's kept in the campus security office. It displays the officer's photo, his badge - now retired - and a Distinguished Service Cross with the inscription, "For Making the Ultimate Sacrifice."
Mary Ann Zakrzewski is learning to cope with her loss by attending a support group for widows and widowers every Tuesday night in Virginia Beach.
She said that no one from the college or the Virginia Beach Police Department has contacted her "in five or six months." No one has ever officially told her how her husband died, she said.
And as for the Wesleyan community, "I felt like they'd be here for me, but they haven't."
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