Residents Discuss Shooting at Town Hall

As anxiety about the massacre at Salon Meritage begins to fade, the community turned its attention and worry toward the death penalty trial to come.

About 100 people gathered for a town hall meeting Thursday at McGaugh Elementary. They thanked police for arresting alleged gunman Scott Dekraai and protecting the community and integrity of the investigation. They thanked the firefighters and paramedics who treated the victims, and they questioned Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas about the trial ahead.

The significance of the town hall’s location was not lost on the crowd. McGaugh is where alleged shooter Scott Dekraai dropped off papers the day of the shooting. The little boy at the center of Dekraai and ex-wife Michelle Fournier’s custody battle attends second grade at the school, and it’s where many in the community fear Dekraai might have gone if he had not been arrested moments after he allegedly shot Fournier and eight others.

Dominic remains with Fournier’s family, and Fournier’s adult daughter Chelsea Huff sent a message of thanks to the community Thursday.

“Chelsea asked me to come here tonight and let everyone know that in the words of Dominic’s therapist…’Dominic is doing remarkably well.’ The support of the community has been nothing short of amazing,” said Steve Huff, Chelsea’s father.

No longer in crisis mode, many in the community are looking ahead to the death penalty trial of Dekraai. Seal Beach resident Stephanie Milano said she worried Dekraai could evade prosecution with an insanity plea. Others at the town hall also expressed concerns that the trial could leave Orange County if Dekraai’s defense team can get a change of venue.

“The truth of the matter is insanity pleas tend, overall, not to be very successful in jury trials, so I think we have a likelihood of winning that,” Rackauckas assured the crowd.

Within hours of the shooting, the district attorney’s office had investigators and prosecutor Scott Simmons on the scene with an eye toward the kind of evidence that would counter an insanity plea, added Rackauckas.

As for the change of venue, Rackauckas said he expects the defense to try to get the trial moved to another county. However, Orange County is large enough to ensure an impartial jury, he said.

“There is no question in my mind that we could find a fair and impartial jury in Orange County,” said Rackauckas. But if a change of venue is granted, “we’ll try the case wherever it goes.”

Mixed with the gratitude to first responders and anxiety over the death penalty trial, residents also displayed a sense of anger. Many applauded when one speaker suggested the psychologist who treated Dekraai also be convicted for not stopping his patient from doing harm.

The anger, the anxiety, the heavy sadness is normal, crisis counselor Heather Williams told the crowd.

“Many of you go to sleep at night with the nightmares,” she said. Others replay the scenes from that day over and over again in their heads. In the days to come, some will be cranky and sleepy while others will have no appetites. Acute stress reactions may last 30 days, she said.

“In the aftermath of a tragedy this large…you have to learn to take care of yourself,” said Williams. “It’s important to surround yourself with people who support you.”

“We keep hearing over and over again, ‘I just want things to go back to normal,’ ” said Williams. But things will never be the same again, she said. Instead, she said, the people of Seal Beach will discover a “new normal” over time.