Update on Baku Shootings

It always seems the most horrific events happen on the most beautiful days. Remember how absolutely perfect the weather was on 9/11?

This spring Baku weather has been anything but pleasant. After a few warm days, winter came roaring back and it has been cold, dusty, windy and generally disagreeable. But this week spring finally decided to make its belated arrival, just in time for the oil academy shooting. Around 6:00 last night I was making my way home and the warm sun and blue sky was completely incongruous to what was going on in the city.

Another incongruity: while the murders were taking place with police rushing to the scene the television channels all continued to broadcast their midday talk shows. (Think very, very low budget Oprah or Ellen.) No cut away to breaking news. No updates. One woman I talked to seethed that she got better information from internet message boards than from any official news sources. This is the kind of meat and potatoes that U.S. television stations crave.

The final death toll appears to be 13 people including the gunman. The death toll may rise in the coming days as about the same number are wounded, many critically. Mid-afternoon yesterday, word made its way around town that the hospitals were short on blood and a group of lawyers from my office went to City Clinic #1, where the victims were being treated, to donate. So many other Azeris had done the same that many were turned away.

I walked by the scene this afternoon where about two hundred people were gathered--mostly students. Flowers were piled on the stairs leading up to the building. A few newsmen were gathered interviewing mourners and filming the scene. Usually that part of town is crowded and noisy--a constant stream of honking. Today it was one of the quietest streets in Baku.

Here is my story for EurasiaNet on the shootings.