The Washington Post - 14.11.2019

B2 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14 , 2019

drums, waving flags — Syrian,

Kurdish, Armenian, American

and others — and chanting. With

temperatures hovering in the 30s,

protesters handed out hand

warmers, cigarettes and hot cups

of coffee poured from thermoses.

Kemal Oz, a veteran who served

in the Army for four years, includ-

ing a tour in Iraq from 2008 to

2009, wore his military fatigues to

the rally to show that “not all

Americans, not all veterans agree

with what [Trump] is doing.”

“I came here to say, ‘Not in my

name,’ ” said Oz, who lives in Dal-

las. “The Kurds were our strongest

allies in the Middle East. We

should never have sold them out

like we did.”

Lisa Stepanian, 61, of New York,

wore a button on her chest that

said “the Turkish Delight is mur-

der.”

Stepanian, a Syrian American,

said she has carried the pin

around for more than 50 years.

She was 10 when an Armenian

man who survived the genocide

gave it to her.

She had heard about the vio-

lence that marred Erdogan’s 2017

visit but decided to come anyway.

“My ancestors were all killed,”

she said. “If I can’t come out here

and demand [Erdogan] is made to

account for his actions when

there’s a little risk, then shame on

me.”

Two years ago, members of Er-

dogan’s security team broke

through a police line and beat

demonstrators gathered outside

the Turkish ambassador’s resi-

dence in Northwest Washington.

Several demonstrators, along

with police and Secret Service

agents, were injured, and authori-

ties charged 15 members of Erdo-

gan’s security detail with various

counts of assault. Charges were

later dropped against all but four

of the guards.

Turkish leaders have linked

demonstrators, such as the ones

they fought with in 2017, to the

separatist Kurdistan Workers’

Party, or PKK, which both Turkey

and the United States have desig-

nated a terrorist organization.

Demonstrators have denied being

associated with that group.

Erdogan in 2017 denounced

D.C. police for failing to protect

him and his entourage and said it

was necessary that the guards

take action because local law en-

forcement either refused to or

were incapable.

[email protected]

[email protected]

Jennifer Amur, David Nakamura and

Karen DeYoung contributed to this

report.

said he “shared my colleagues’
uneasiness at seeing President Er-
dogan honored at the White
House.”
There appeared to be no repeat
of the violence from two years ago,
though there were some brief skir-
mishes.
A scuffle broke out early in the
afternoon when a man in a long
black coat, who appeared to be an
Erdogan supporter, walked into
the crowd. Chris Walsh, 30, who
came from Boston to attend the
rally, confronted the man, who
was silent as a line of D.C. police
officers escorted him out of Lafay-
ette Square. As he went, he held up
a hand and made a gesture associ-
ated with a far-right Turkish na-
tionalist group, the Grey Wolves,
his pinkie and index fingers
raised.
Later, a reporter for Turkey’s
state-run Turkish Radio and Tele-
vision Corp. was shoved, appar-
ently by a demonstrator, as he
live-streamed a report. The sta-
tion’s director said on Twitter that
the reporter was “attacked by the
enemies of Turkey” and that “we
will continue to transmit the truth
without fear, no matter which part
of world we are.”
When a motorcade pulled out
of the White House late in the
afternoon, demonstrators broke
into shouts of “Terrorist Erdo-
gan!”
But D.C. police blocked the
demonstrators as they set out to
march from the White House to
Sheridan Circle, putting a line of
about three dozen officers at 15th
and G streets NW. Demonstrators
stood face-to-face with the offi-
cers, beating drums and continu-
ing chants of “Shame on Trump!”
before returning to Lafayette
Square and disbanding.
The afternoon demonstration
was mostly calm amid a heavy
police presence. Children ran
through the grass and jumped up
and down on signs bearing images
of Erdogan’s face.
Shahnaz Kocher, 41, brought
her sons — ages 6 and 7 — so they
could “start to understand the his-
tory of a place called Kurdistan.”

PROTEST FROM B1

Protesters

rally in D.C.

against

Erdogan

14 pages of recommendations.
Those included more frequent
monitoring of disease trends on
campus, sharing health informa-
tion with regional providers, des-
ignating an individual responsi-
ble for crisis communications
and conducting air sampling af-
ter mold remediation.
“Our campus works tirelessly
on behalf of the health and safety
of our students, faculty and staff,
and we will carefully consider the
report’s recommendations,” uni-
versity President Wallace D. Loh
wrote in a campuswide email
Wednesday in response to the
report. “The panel unanimously
found that university employees
prioritized student health and
safety above all else. At the same
time, our work on campus safety
is always ongoing.”
Ian Paregol, Olivia’s father,
said he appreciated the panel’s
efforts but thought the Oct. 22
interview conducted with him
was an “afterthought” because he
was the last one scheduled and
was asked only three questions.
“We do not want another child
and family to suffer through this
unimaginable pain, and if push-
ing for an investigation to evalu-
ate the university’s responses can
prevent that from happening and
avoids another unnecessary
death, then at least we have made
some progress in accountability
within the UMD system,” Paregol
said.
Olivia Paregol visited the uni-
versity health center with a fever
and sore throat on Nov. 2, one day
after the university learned of the
first adenovirus case. Her condi-
tion rapidly deteriorated, and it
wasn’t until the teenager was
fighting for her life at Johns

REPORT FROM B1 Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore
on Nov. 13 that David McBride,
the health center’s director, in-
formed the Paregol family about
adenovirus cases on campus.
Adenovirus, which is not gov-
erned by mandatory state or fed-
eral reporting requirements, can
produce symptoms similar to a
cold or flu. Certain virulent
strains can sicken healthy indi-
viduals and be particularly dan-
gerous to individuals like Olivia
Paregol, who had a weakened
immune system.
Katie Lawson, the university’s
chief communications officer,
told the panel that she was not
aware that public health officials
had declared an adenovirus out-
break on Nov. 13. At a meeting on
Nov. 15, McBride and other col-
lege officials discussed sending
out an email to students living in
Elkton Hall, the dorm where
Paregol lived that had been tem-
porarily evacuated because of
mold problems.
The report noted that the
group decided to send a message
about adenovirus to the entire
campus but that “there was some
delay” and it wasn’t finalized
until the following day, on a
Friday. The university planned to
email it on Monday. Paregol died
on Sunday evening, Nov. 18.
“Throughout the handling of
adenovirus notices, Ms. Lawson
stated there was tension around
wanting to be responsive to the
community with more informa-
tion than usual and guidance
from state and county health
officials, which was also coming
from the CDC,” the report said.
McBride, who left his job at the
university several weeks after the
start of the fall 2019 semester, did
not return messages from The
Washington Post seeking com-

ment. During his interview with

the panel, McBride discussed his

efforts to assist students who had

health problems related to the

mold. He also said the decision

not to take air samples before or

after the mold remediation was a

“subject of controversy.”

The mold surfaced in Elkton

Hall and other dorms as early as

July 2018. During the unusually

wet season, the university re-

ceived more than 1,800 service

calls related to mold at dorms

across campus, the report said.

Andrea Crabb, director of resi-

dential facilities, told the panel

there were “communication

breakdowns” with residential fa-

cilities staff during the cleaning

and remediation. Crabb said she

was advised by the college’s De-

partment of Environmental Safe-

ty, Sustainability and Risk that

air sample testing should not be

conducted.

Mold does not cause adenovi-

rus, but McBride, in emails previ-

ously reported by The Post, ac-

knowledged that “mold can cause

respiratory irritation that may

increase susceptibility of any vi-

ral infection.”

The Paregol family filed a no-

tice of claim against the college in

May and said they intend to move

ahead with a wrongful-death law-

suit.

Ian Paregol said university offi-

cials “still did withhold the infor-

mation which caused my daugh-

ter’s death. They knew there was

an adenovirus outbreak, and they

should have told us and her to get

checked when she came to the

university health center after the

first case of the virus.”

[email protected]

Amy Brittain contributed to this

report.

Report identifies ‘areas of weakness’

in U-Md.’s handling of outbreaks

PHOTOS BY MICHAEL ROBINSON CHAVEZ/THE WASHINGTON POST

Protesters assemble at Lafayette Square on Wednesday to voice their opposition to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his

visit to the White House, where he met with President Trump. The two leaders later held a news conference.

LEFT: The afternoon demonstration was mostly calm amid a heavy police presence, which was designed to avoid a repeat of Erdogan’s last

visit in 2017, when clashes broke out. RIGHT: Protesters, including Roman, 7, right, and Loen Zaremba, protest the Turkish president at

Lafayette Square. Zaremba is holding an image of a fighter killed in Kurdistan during the war against the Islamic State.

She said standing so close to

where Erdogan was meeting with

Trump felt surreal.

“What a shame to America,” she

said.

Seyid Riza Dersimi, 62, was one

of the protesters injured two years

ago. He said Turkish security offi-

cers beat him so badly that he was

hospitalized with a head injury.

On Wednesday he wore a white

construction helmet as he ad-

dressed the crowd.

“I am not scared of him,” he said

to cheers. “Of course I’m going to

demonstrate. But this time, I am

going to make sure I protect my-

self.”

For hours, protesters marched

around the square, beating

BY CLARENCE WILLIAMS

An independent auditor on

Wednesday released a four-month

study of the shooting rampage at

the Virginia Beach municipal cen-

ter in May, but the report still

leaves victims’ family members,

city leaders and the community

wondering why a city engineer

decided to open fire at his work-

place.

In July, city officials hired the

risk management firm Hillard

Heintze to examine the city’s re-

sponse and workplace factors that

may have led DeWayne Craddock

to kill 12 people just hours after he

submitted his resignation in an

email.

The firm reviewed 335,000

emails and 6,500 documents, con-

ducted interviews with city man-

agers, held listening sessions with

employees and scoured Crad-

dock’s life in search of clues that

may have indicated danger.

The report said the gunman did

not display warning signs that

may have allowed the city to inter-

vene before the May 31 attack. It

also found nothing to substantiate

widespread rumors of an employ-

ee who was denied promotion or

was aggressive in the workplace.

“I think when you say why, ev-

eryone wants a nice, clean reason.

Those clear answers don’t exist

here,” Debra Kirby, the firm’s se-

nior vice president, told city lead-

ers at a meeting Wednesday.

In its probe, Hillard Heintze

described purchases by Craddock

of several handguns, body armor

and a noise suppressor. Searches

of Craddock’s cellphone revealed

“at least five queries to websites

that contained news about mass

shootings between May 2018 and

May 2019,” the report stated.

The report said that he had

stressors in his life such as a di-

vorce and criticism of his job per-

formance, but nothing that would

indicate a predilection to a violent

outburst.

“What seems to be puzzling to

me is that we just don’t have

enough information about the at-

tacker,” city council member San-

dra Wooten told the report’s au-

thors.

Hillard Heintze CEO Arnette

Heintze described Craddock as a

loner at work. City records showed

that Craddock was placed on a

performance improvement plan

and had written drafts of emails

that expressed that he felt unfairly

treated. But Craddock never sent

those emails, and there was no

indication his managers knew of

them, Heintze and Kirby said.

In the report, released Wednes-

day, consultants gave details

about a conflict Craddock had

with the city’s purchasing depart-

ment. The May 29 incident in-

volved a vendor invoice for about

$3,000 that Craddock was not au-

thorized to approve. Craddock re-

ceived a voice mail from the city’s

procurement department stating,

in part, that his conduct had vio-

lated a city ordinance. A supervi-

sor said Craddock had a negative

reaction to the voice mail, and a

co-worker also said he was upset

by it, the report said.

A supervisor told investigators

the incident would not have led to

Craddock’s being fired and that he

was on the path to “meet expecta-

tions” at his evaluation in August.

On May 30, Craddock called

both his mother and his ex-wife,

the report said. His mother said he

complained about insomnia and

his work supervisors but other-

wise seemed upbeat and dis-

cussed the future.

He also had a 40-minute con-

versation with his ex-wife, to

whom he had not spoken in some

time. His ex-wife described Crad-

dock as amicable and said he stat-

ed that he wanted them to remain

friends.

The auditors cautioned that

they did not have access to Crad-

dock’s personal computer or re-

cords, which are being examined

by the FBI and may hold clues to

his thinking.

Jason Nixon, whose wife, Kate,

was killed in the rampage, said

that he is “disgusted” by the review

because he thinks the city limited

the scope of the auditors’ work.

He insists that his wife and oth-

ers had complained about Crad-

dock’s behavior, and that Kate had

copied supervisors on emails she

had sent about him.

“They knew for two years this

guy had issues,” Nixon said. “HR

did nothing; his direct supervisors

did nothing.”

Nixon said he’s looking to the

FBI for a more thorough investiga-

tion.

The Hillard Heintze report is

the second investigation into the

rampage. In September, a police

investigation described Crad-

dock’s movements immediately

before the shooting, but it, too, did

not identify any factor that could

have prompted the attack.

In its 262-page report, Hillard

Heintze also described heroic acts

by city employees on the day of the

shooting and listed nearly 60 rec-

ommendations of changes the city

should make in areas such as hu-

man resources and safety strate-

gies for city buildings.

[email protected]

VIRGINIA

Answers elusive in shooting rampage

Auditor says Va. Beach

gunman didn’t display

warning signs

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Sweet: Free Tickets to the Sugarloaf Crafts Festival

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