Thread: Officials: UW gunman was in U.S. illegally

SEATTLE (AP) - Immigration officials said Wednesday night that the man who killed a woman on the University of Washington campus on Monday and then killed himself had lived in the United States illegally for more than 10 years.

41-year-old Jonathan Rowan was a British citizen. The woman killed was 26-year-old Rebecca Griego, Rowan's ex-girlfriend.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman says Rowan arrived legally at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in March 1996, carrying his visa waiver he obtained as a British citizen. That allowed him to stay in the country for 90 days. He used the name Jonathan Rowan.

...

Spokeswoman Lorie Dankers says immigration officials got tips several years ago that Rowan was in the U.S. illegally and investigated. But immigration agents couldn't find him.

Immigration agents prepared an administrative immigration warrant for Rowan's arrest when he wasn't found. But he eluded them.

Seattle police arrested Rowan for drunken driving on June 30th, 2006. But city law forbids Seattle police from inquiring about immigration status, unless the officer has a reasonable suspicion that person is in the United States illegally.

http://www.komotv.com/news/6879362.html

In effect, the city of Seattle killed Rebecca Griego.

W

Seattle police arrested Rowan for drunken driving on June 30th, 2006. But city law forbids Seattle police from inquiring about immigration status, unless the officer has a reasonable suspicion that person is in the United States illegally.

And now another American Citizen is dead.
These stories are becoming endless.
I wish I knew how to do it, I would make an entire website just for stories of innocent Americans victimized and killed by illegals.
What about OUR civil rights? Do we not count at all?

UW cites failures on Griego
School's protection policies not followed by employees
By CASEY MCNERTHNEY AND HECTOR CASTRO

Rebecca Griego took numerous precautions to keep her former boyfriend from finding her before he shot her to death at work Monday, but University of Washington police and her colleagues failed to follow school policies designed to protect women in her position, school officials acknowledged Thursday.

The UW employees who didn't take action aren't likely to be reprimanded, said university spokesman Norm Arkans, who defended the employees' response.

"They were doing the best they thought they could do to help this very valued colleague," he said. "You know, hindsight is perfect."

Adriana Johnson, who worked with Griego in Gould Hall, said pictures of Griego's ex-boyfriend, Jonathan Rowan, were provided to co-workers and a restraining order police wanted to serve against him was in Griego's office. Her colleagues even supported Griego working from home for the past two weeks.

Rowan killed her in her office on her second day back and then shot himself to death, university officials said.

University supervisors are required to contact the Human Resources consultant about violent incidents or threats, such as those made by Rowan. School policy states a supervisor must speak in person to a consultant who can develop a safety plan with the university's workplace violence-prevention assessment team.

The university created the workplace violence prevention assessment team after a pathology resident killed his mentor and them himself in June 2000.

"What they would have done is go down sort of a checklist and examine her working environment and see if they could perhaps make it more secure from an intruder," Arkans said. "But the Human Resources Department was unaware of this situation, basically."

The university requires that supervisors be informed about the steps human resources can take to prevent domestic violence. Arkans didn't know if Griego's co-workers knew about resources the department could provide.



Mindy Kornberg, the university's vice president of human resources, declined to comment Thursday.

"You cannot reduce risk to zero," Arkans said. "You can take steps to reduce risk."

University police have taken steps to confirm Rowan's identity, though it's looking more likely that Rowan was his actual name, Assistant Chief Ray Wittmier said. Investigators have also contacted authorities in England, where they now believe he has relatives, possibly a brother and sister.

But little word about Rowan has surfaced from overseas. Reporters for The Times in London have not found immediate family or criminal history for the man who resided in Rochdale -- a city of about 95,000 north of Manchester, England.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman said Rowan arrived legally at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in March 1996, carrying a visa waiver he obtained as a British citizen. That allowed him to stay in the country for 90 days.

After the 90-day visa waiver expired, Rowan remained in the U.S. He was here illegally when police arrested him for drunken driving June 30, 2006. City law prohibits Seattle police from asking about immigration status unless there's probable cause that someone is here illegally.

The arresting officer learned he did not have a valid driver's license, but found "an old (Washington) ID card" and Rowan claimed to have a European license.

Department of Licensing records show Jonathan Ghulam-Nabi Rowan had a Washington state ID card, which expired in 2011. The cards are valid for five years and his would have expired on March 13, 2011 -- Rowan's birthday. Federal law prevents licensing officials from talking about invalid licenses.

"It is possible for illegal immigrants to get IDs," spokesman Brad Benfield said. "The state requires enough proof of identification to prove who you are and that you live in Washington state. ... If he didn't have a valid passport, it would probably still be considered along with other acceptable forms of identification."

Police have said Rowan had at least two fake passports, and acquaintances described him as a computer whiz.

Immigration agents prepared an administrative immigration warrant for Rowan's arrest after he violated his visa waiver, but Rowan eluded them.

Arkans said that after police conclude their investigation of Griego's murder, UW officials plan to re-examine the incident.

"We will look at all aspects of how we responded," he said. "We will look at what things we can put in place to improve resources that are available to further minimize the risk of these things happening again."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/310 ... ing06.html

To contact Seattle City government to ask about their "Sanctuary Policy", heare is a good starting point.


Contact information for Mayor Greg Nickels, City of Seattle:

Mayor Greg Nickels
PO Box 94749
Seattle, WA 98124-4749

(206) 684-4000

Webmail form:
http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/citizen_response.htm

I wrote to the Mayor. My email:

Dear Mayor Nickels;

I lived in Seattle a few years ago and worked at U of W during that time. I'm very sad to see this story about this poor young lady being murdered at UDub.

Seattle is a sanctuary city. This case is one of many across the country of innocent lives lost due to the actions of people who are here illegally. This young woman would be alive if this man had been deported. SHE was the citizen, SHE deserved to be protected. You may have seen recently that even Los Angeles is having to rethink Special Order 40 because they can't fight gangs effectively without doing so.

Seattle is a beautiful city. And it should be made safe. It should be a place people want to visit and be able to feel comfortable in doing so. Maybe it's time for Seattle to rethink the Sanctuary City policy? Cities should not encourage or participate in illegal practices.

I encourage Seattle to help enforce the law, not to break it. Help protect citizens like Rebecca Griego.

Thank you.

Move to new section for Americans Killed By illegals.

How many THOUSANDS of visa overstays are in this country and this corrupt rotten government has not done a thing to expel them off our soil.

He was a British citizen. I do not care what color they are or where they came from, I demand they are tracked down and expelled out of here. This is not about race. It is about law and order and the safety of Americans.

It should be mandatory $25,000 bond to come here on a visa. If they do not leave on time, they forfeit the money. We do not need or want these foreign citizens here.

It should be mandatory they have health insurance before coming here or NO entry! I do not want to pay their damn medical bills either.

Yeah, happy St. Patrick's Day. We have thousands of Irish here as visa overstays, they are white, I do not care. I want them booted out too. They can never come back.



Perhaps the USA should have ID cards issued at birth "LEGAL U.S. CITIZEN" with your fingerprint on it, that you carry as PROOF you are here legally and must show at the request of any law enforcement officer.

I am damn sick and tired of people coming here from all around the world and treat us like a doormat and we foot the bill for it.


SORRY...WE ARE CLOSED

NO VACANCY

NOT WELCOME ANYMORE

GO HOME!