Obsessed man shoots, kills teacher

TACOMA — He sent her roses and a stuffed bear, e-mailed and called her incessantly, and repeatedly visited the school where she taught — all against her wishes.

Jed Waits was infatuated with Jennifer Paulson, a woman he had met in college, but the 30-year-old special-education teacher didn't feel the same way about him. In fact, she was fearful of him and had even been granted a court order more than a year ago to keep Waits away.

But it didn't work.

On Friday morning, Waits waited two hours for Paulson to arrive for work at Birney Elementary School in Tacoma. When she did, Waits fatally shot her as she walked toward the school.

Twenty minutes later, a Pierce County sheriff's deputy confronted Waits outside a day care near Frederickson, about 10 miles from the school. Waits, 30, opened fire and was fatally shot by the deputy.

The shootings happened one week after Waits, of Ellensburg, had been arrested for violating the civil anti-harassment order that Paulson had obtained against him in September 2008. Paulson was granted the order after Waits repeatedly called her, sent her flowers and visited her workplace against her wishes, according to Tacoma Municipal Court records.

Waits spent last weekend behind bars, according to Tacoma police. On Monday in Tacoma Municipal Court, he pleaded not guilty to a charge that he had violated the order, according to court records.

Normally, bail in such an arrest would be set at $2,000, said Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum. But police and prosecutors asked the judge to set it higher.

A judge set bail at $10,000, Fulghum said, but Waits managed to raise the money and was released that day.

Friday, no children were at the school at the time of the 7:30 a.m. shooting, police said.

Omar Moreno, 22, who lives across the street from the school, heard the gunshots while inside his home.

"I heard two gunshots. I heard the teacher screaming," he said.

Moreno then looked outside and saw an armed man fire an additional gunshot at another man who had apparently witnessed the shooting. The witness ran for cover and was not hit by gunfire, Moreno said.

The gunman then got into a tan Honda Accord and drove off, Moreno said.

A school employee was able to give police a description of the car.

Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said a deputy pulled over Waits' car in the parking lot of a day-care center in Frederickson. Waits emerged from the car firing a handgun, Troyer said.

The deputy returned fire and killed him. That shooting forced the evacuation of the day care.

In her petition for the 2008 anti-harassment order, Paulson wrote of numerous times Waits came to the school where she worked.

The two met while they were students at Seattle Pacific University, but were never romantically involved.

Paulson wrote that she had not heard from him much since they graduated in 2003, but he called her one day and told her he had been in the Army National Guard in Kuwait and had just returned. He began calling her numerous times at all hours, but she refused to answer.

Once, while she was teaching at Birney Elementary, Waits was stopped by the school secretary when he walked into the school. Paulson said she was shocked when she found him in the hallway and theorized he had searched the school Web site to find where she worked.

Afterward, her father called him and told him to stay away from her, Paulson wrote.

On another occasion, Paulson arrived at the school and found him there, according to court documents. He got out of his car and approached her. She told him to leave and called police.

Once, the school principal called Waits' National Guard commander to ask him to help persuade Waits to leave Paulson alone.

In September 2008, after Waits had showed up at the school yet again, Paulson filed for the anti-harassment order. Waits was required to stay away from Paulson's home and workplace, and he was forbidden from contacting her.

But according to police, Paulson saw Waits following her on Feb. 19, a week before the shooting, and called police.

An anti-harassment order is a special type of civil-restraining order available to victims of harassment. It puts alleged offenders on notice and orders them to stay away from their victims.

Victims advocates who advise seeking the orders say police are more likely to respond to calls of harassment if the order is in place and that the offender will more likely be charged criminally.

However, studies done by the U.S. Department of Justice, the University of Washington and others have shown that such legal remedies can sometimes spur offenders to lethal action.

Rebecca Griego, a UW employee, was fatally shot in 2007 by an obsessed ex-boyfriend about one month after she sought an order of protection from him.

Tim Bradshaw, a former King County deputy prosecutor, said after the Griego shooting that there's no piece of paper strong enough to stop a person with a gun, an obsession and nothing left to lose.

Waits' father, Dennis Waits of Ellensburg, told KING-TV that his family was shocked and saddened by the shooting.

"We're as shocked as you are. We didn't see it coming," Dennis Waits told KING-TV.

The Washington Army National Guard said in a news release that Waits had received a less-than-honorable discharge in April 2009 and that he "was not a member in good standing for much of his time in service," which included a deployment to Kuwait in 2007.

Court documents from Lower Kittitas District Court show another woman had sought an anti-harassment order against Waits in November 2008, and that he was charged with fourth-degree assault a month later. Details of those cases were not available Friday.

Paulson had been employed by the district since 2004 and had been at Birney — a K-5 school with 400 students — since 2007. Tacoma School District spokesman Dan Voelpel said she worked in the language-resource center helping students with reading problems.

"She was a very kind, merciful, loving person," said her father, Ken Paulson. "That's probably why she was a special-education teacher — because she loved so much."

Information from Seattle Times staff reporter Steve Miletich, news researchers Gene Balk and David Turim, Times archives and The Associated Press is included in this report.