At about 3:30 Saturday morning, as the rave at Capitol Hill Arts Center (CHAC) was winding down, the young people who lived at 2112 East Republican Street scanned the dance floor for people they could invite to their afterparty. They made a habit of welcoming strangers—it’s how they had all met one another in the first place. They had almost finished with the invitations when Jeremy Martin, 26, spotted a hulking, solitary figure.
“Go ask him,” Jeremy said to his best friend, Anthony Moulton.
Another person who lived at the home, 24-year-old Jesiah Martin (no relation to Jeremy), remembers having seen the man that night—conspicuous not just for his 6’5″ 280-pound frame but for the fact that he wasn’t dressed up or dancing. “He was by himself mostly, fly on the wall style,” said Jesiah.
Anthony, who is disarmingly goofy in the way of most in their group, approached the man and said, “Do you know the difference between Scotch and beer?” Most at the party were drinking beer, but Anthony handed the man a flask full of Macallan. The man took a swig and grimaced. But he liked it. He even smiled, leading Anthony to say, “Hey, what are you doing after this? We have half a keg at our place…”
And that is how Kyle Huff came to visit the house on East Republican Street.
I’ve mentioned before that The Stranger has been consistently doing the best reporting on the Capitol Hill shooting. They continue with this feature story on the events of the night.
ADN had a story – I will post it if I can find it – indicating one of the persons kiiled was born in Alaska, in Bethel, and was Alaska Native.
My guess (based solely on her appearance) is that this was Melissa Moore, who at 14 was the youngest of the victims.
While this article doesn’t explicitly state a connection to Alaska, it was the only one I found on the ADN website.
Funny. I was just thinking that the stranger definitely had the best reporting on the incident. Probably because they’re the only news outlet (that I’ve seen so far) that actually bothered to interview the survivors. Or perhaps the survivors were only comfortable really being interviewed by the stranger. Considering all of the finger pointing at the rave community that more mainstream publications have been doing, I’m not surprised.