(Ebr Daily Star
Web Wars
Organizations challenge
Internet filters in court.
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Online 2002-03 Parking Registration Starts
By Jessica Sleep
Staff Writer
UNC students began to cast their lots
in the campus parking lottery Monday,
hoping to obtain a jackpot in the form of
a parking permit.
But campus construction and recent
legislative actions have resulted in
changes to this year’s parking assignment
process, officials said.
Registration opened to students at 2
Speaking From the Inside
Shooter Explains Mental Illness and Its Haunting Consequences
By Kellie Dixon
City Editor
RALEIGH - Wendell Justin Williamson sits
peacefully in the conference room at Dorothea
Dix Hospital in jeans, a jean jacket and black
sweater, occasionally sipping from a cup of caf
feine free diet Coke.
But beneath the quiet demeanor, where med
ication can’t reach, rages an emotional battle
about not only what happened one chilly
January day, but more importantly, why it hap
pened.
On Jan. 26, 1995, Williamson, then a third
year law student at UNC, calmly started at the
bottom of Henderson Street and headed toward
Franklin Street with an M-l rifle in hand.
A few minutes later, gun shots shattered that
peaceful Tuesday afternoon, and once the smoke
cleared, Williamson was in custody. Two people
lay dead 2O-year-old UNC lacrosse player
Kevin Eric Reichardt and 42-year-old Ralph
Woodrow Walker, a manager at a Chapel Hill
McDonald’s restaurant. A police officer and
Williamson were wounded.
Williamson was found not guilty by reason of
insanity - he was diagnosed as suffering from
paranoid schizophrenia -and committed to
Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh.
While state officials might move him, along
with other residents, if the hospital closes,
Williamson has little concern.
He is more focused on the battle within.
During two interviews at Dorothea Dix,
Williamson talked about coming to terms with
that day.
“I think that when (my name) comes up, (peo
ple) think of a law student who killed people and
then got acquitted on the insanity defense and
sued his doctor and won a bunch of money,”
Williamson said. “I think all these different fac
tors come together to paint a picture that the
world could do without.
“But that’s not the way I view myself.”
In his early twenties, Williamson,who gradu
ated from UNC as an English major in 1990, was
a socially active student, playing in bands and
going out with friends.
But in the years leading up to the incident,
Williamson, who was 26 at the time of the shoot
ing, went through a mental transformation that
altered his actions and turned him into more of a
recluse.
That transformation happened with the onset
of paranoid schizophrenia, a disease Williamson
says can play a detrimental role in a person’s life
if the symptoms are ignored or treatment is
refused.
There is a better chance for a violent outburst
similar to Williamson’s if the symptoms are
allowed to fester -a situation Williamson says
he now realizes can be avoided with medica
tion.
In the seven years since the deadly shooting
and his commitment to a state psychiatric hospi
tal, Williamson has taken steps to inform people
about paranoid schizophrenia, an illness that
affects from 0.1 percent to 1 percent of the pop
ulation and typically emerges in the late teenage
or early adult years of life.
Williamson documented his experiences with
the disease -most notably the hallucinations
that came in the form of voices - in his 188-
page book “Nightmare: A Schizophrenia
Narrative.”
“I was just imagining what someone would
want to know if they didn’t know what I had
0
p.m. Monday on the Department of
Public Safety’s Web site and will be open
until May 23.
This stage of registration normally
begins on or around April 1, but this
year’s process was delayed because of
miscommunication between student gov
ernment leaders, said Student Body
President Jen Daum. The process still will
be open for the same length of time.
Student government determines certain
information, like the number of spaces
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been through,” he said. “First of all, I wanted to
get everything down.
“Everything that was true I wanted to get on
paper.”
Williamson said his goal in writing his book is
to reach out to people who don’t know what
schizophrenia is, how it operates or who it affects.
“I’d like to see an end to this insane gunman
stuff,” he said.
“I know there are a lot of challenges in getting
the treatment to the people who need it.... But
I’d like to see situations that I’m in not happen to
other people.”
But Williamson said that through the book he
isn’t looking for sympathy and is aware he most
likely can’t earn forgiveness from the victims’
families.
“I haven’t really known how to deal with the
families,” he said. “In a way, I want to reach out
to them, and in a way, I’m afraid to.
“I don’t want to cause any more trauma than
I already have, and I’m not sure how I can keep
from it.”
Karl Reichardt, Kevin’s father, said that
although seven years have passed, his family still
is coping with the aftermath of the incident.
“I don’t know if it’s ever going to be a situation
where we can truly forgive (Williamson) because
he made a decision,” Reichardt said. “Even
though he was out of control at the time, he com
mitted the murders; it was his choice to stop the
medication.
“That, to me, makes him accountable, and
whether or not I can forgive, that is still a big
question.”
Williamson said he knows he made decisions
that destroyed others’ lives, and because he is tak
ing medication, he has good brain chemistry and
The study of crime begins with the knowledge of oneself.
Henry Miller
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
Cutting Edge Cloning
N.C. State University recruits a
leader in the field of biotechnology.
See Page 6
and lots that are available for students
before registration can begin, said Cheryl
Stout, assistant director of parking services.
Daum and former Student Body
President Justin Young said student gov
ernment used figures from this year’s
permit allocations to determine the
number of spaces different types of stu
dents will receive next year.
Parking permits for 2002-03 will be
assigned by a random lottery system.
Every student who registers for a permit
Demonized
Tar Heels lose two of three
bouts with Demon Deacons.
See Page 11
will receive a random number. Students
will be assigned a position within their
academic class and divided by their sta
tus as a commuter or resident.
When they register, students can indi
cate two choices of lots for which they
wish to receive a permit. During the
assignment process, DPS awards permits
to students based on their first choice. If
permits are left over, assignments are
made using students’ second choice.
But while some aspects of registration
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is able to grasp his situation.
“There’s always this debate in my mind of how
much is mental illness and how much is me,” he
said.
“And my memory includes a lot of psychosis,
so I think I’m a person whose intentions were
good, but as they say, the road to hell is paved
with good intentions."
As part of his delusions, Williamson said that
at the time of the shooting and even a couple of
years afterward, he believed his actions - aban
doning his medication and reacting violently -
See WILLIAMSON, Page 7
X
Weather
Today: Cloudy; H 76, L 57
Wednesday: Rainy; H 70, L 45
Thursday: Mostly Cloudy; H 66, L 45
remain unchanged this year, others have
been affected by recent events. Stout
said construction in the Ramshead Lot
will mean that students who are issued
permits for that lot will only be able to
park there until Dec. 31, when the lot
will be closed. She said students with S5
permits will not receive new permits.
Stout also said the relocation of visi
tor parking to Stadium Drive will elimi-
See REGISTRATION, Page 9
DTH/KARA ARNDT
DTH FILE PHOTO
Wendell Williamson (top) recently
published a book titled "Nightmare:
A Schizophrenia Narrative."
He is a patient at Dorothea Dix
Hospital being treated for paranoid
schizophrenia. Williamson says his
illness led to the Jan. 26,1995,
murders of sophomore lacrosse
player Kevin Reichardt and Ralph
Walker, manager of a Chapel Hill
McDonalcfs. Officers load
Reichardt's body into an ambulance
on Henderson Street (bottom).
*2^
Council
Finalizes
Licensing
The new rental licensing
ordinance aims to provide
renters with easier access
to landlord information.
Bv Ben Brooks
Staff Writer
The Chapel Hill Town Council voted
Monday night to pass a rental licensing
ordinance with one amendment, which
aims to ensure that renters will have
access to all landlords currendy in vio
lation of town housing codes.
Rental licensing is a policy designed
to increase landlord accountability by
making contact information and com
plaint records available to renters
through an online database that will be
maintained by the town.
The council attached an additional
amendment to the ordinance, which
will take effect Jan. 1, 2003, and
removed a provision that allowed for
differential treatment of landlords based
on the type of unit being rented.
The amendment that the council
voted to include aimed to account for
property owners’ privacy and made it
so renters with housing code violations
are the only ones who will be listed in
the online database.
Council member Mark Kleinschmidt
said he was concerned that privacy would
become an issue because the public
would have easy access to all possible
landlords. “The town has no business of
maintaining an apartment guide
online,” he said. “We shouldn’t force
See RENTAL LICENSING, Page 9
Democrats
To Debate
On Campus
The forum is open to the
public and will give students
a chance to hear senatorial
candidates exchange ideas.
By Jamie McGee
Staff Writer
Democratic candidates for the U.S.
Senate are slated to assemble at 4 p.m.
today in the UNC Law School Rotunda
for the first
Democratic
debate of this
election season.
The debate
is open to the
Jim Snyder Visits
UNC to Speak
About Campaign
See Page 3
public and will include Democratic can
didates Rep. Dan Blue, D-Wake; former
President Clinton’s Chief of Staff
Erskine Bowles; former Durham coun-
cil member
Cynthia Brown;
and N.C.
Secretary of State
Elaine Marshall.
Candidates will
15
Elections 2002
be allowed to make opening and closing
statements. They will respond to written
questions that have been submitted to
the UNC School of Law dean and then
address three selected general policy
questions.
In the time remaining, questions will
be entertained from the audience.
Gene Nichol, dean of the law school,
said he organized the debate to give law
students an opportunity to hear the can
didates’ exchange of ideas.
“We invited principle Democratic
Senate candidates to come speak at the
law school,” Nichol said. “We like the
See DEBATE, Page 9