Isla Vista Massacre: Chaplain struggles to help community wade through grief

The call came in at about 9:50 pm, as Father Jon Hedges was standing near his desk in the Isla Vista home he's lived in since 1986.  As a chaplain for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department, the Greek Orthodox priest is often called out to crime scenes to comfort victims.

At the time, Hedges didn't know the details of the violent shooting massacre that ripped through the college town just minutes before. 

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"These things come to us like they do the alarm in a fire station, all of a sudden randomly," Hedges said.

But he did know it was time to do what he'd done so many times before — head toward disaster. For years, Hedges has served as a chaplain for various law enforcement agencies, traveling the country when major disaster strikes. He was in New Orleans the week after Hurricane Katrina hit, New York City after Hurricane Sandy, and in Joplin, Missouri after the tornadoes.

This time it was his own neighborhood, Isla Vista, that had turned into a giant crime scene.

Hedges hurried to the foot patrol station shortly after Elliot Rodger's Black BMW careened through town.  As the night stretched on, Hedges counseled traumatized eyewitnesses and friends of those who had died.  He also offered comfort to deputies, blessing the SWAT team moments before they headed to suspect Elliot Rodger's apartment – where they'd find three bodies.

At about 6 a.m. on Saturday, Hedges' duties shifted. That's when the first victim was identified. It fell to Hedges to break the news to the victim's family.

He met the parents of one of the deceased students at St Mark’s Roman Catholic Church.  When he walked up, he could tell they already knew.

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"You see a priest with a couple of deputies and you kind of know that this is a time where you're going to hear something that's painful," Hedges said.
 
Those difficult few minutes, according to Hedges, were almost like giving CPR.
 
"You help people breathe in whatever way your heart guides you," Hedges said. "In that moment, you know a parent is a parent. And we… It's a very, very poignant human moment when you tell someone that their child who they've sent to school has been taken."
 
Even after decades of shouldering these experiences, Hedges says there’s no set script that helps.
But there's something different about having a tragedy in his own backyard.

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"You know we can't wring our hands or point our fingers," he said, "but we've got to figure out a way to do better." 

One thing Hedges has learned is that strength can come out of tragedies. 

"This is home," he said. "This may break my heart but it doesn’t take away my will to stay for my town."