Olive Garden shooting has people asking: Are we really safe in public?

Allison Ross
Courier Journal
  • Shootings at well-loved public places in Louisville have forced some feeling unsafe in public.
  • Recently, a man was killed at the Olive Garden on Outer Loop.
  • Experts say when a shooting hits close to home, the psychological effects can be profound.

Hunter Carter left his new job at Olive Garden after Saturday's shooting.

He just can't go back. He can't relive the panic at the sound of a gunshot, the scramble to find safety or the high-pitched screams.

He can't bring himself to pass by the bush where he hid and called his mom after rushing out of the building, unsure whether the shooter was still around or even if anyone had been shot.

"I just remember feeling the greatest fear I've ever felt," said Carter, 21.

In the past few months, shootings at well-loved public places in Louisville — a restaurant and a couple grocery stores — have forced some to question whether they feel safe when they're out buying a gallon of milk or taking the family to dinner.

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For some, it's easy to brush off the news reports amid many other stories of shootings across the city and country. But experts say how people respond to a shooting is often heavily affected by how close they are — physically, emotionally or psychologically — to it.

"It’s upsetting for people to hear about a shooting, especially when you can identify with the location. You could have been at that restaurant," said Judith Danovitch, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Louisville.

She knows firsthand; she is a 1996 graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, the site of a school shooting one year ago.

Danovitch said shootings can have far-reaching consequences for a community. She said it's hard to tell how people will react and how long it will affect them.

Jose Munoz was killed Feb. 23, after being shot at the Olive Garden on Outer Loop.

Following the Olive Garden shooting, some in Louisville vowed to never return. But others lined up to eat at the Outer Loop restaurant the following day.

"If you read it in the newspaper, that's one thing," Danovitch said. "If you have a friend that was there, that's going to have a different effect on you."

Wes Oeswein of Louisville said he doesn't feel safe taking his family anywhere in public, particularly after hearing about the Olive Garden and Meijer shootings last weekend.

He wasn't there the night of the Olive Garden shooting — and hadn't been to that Olive Garden in quite some time — but it still affected him, he said.

"A man lost his life in front of kids, in an Olive Garden, which I've been to," said Oeswein, 33. "That's it for me."

Related:Man was killed at Olive Garden because he was Mexican, family says

Oeswein said he stopped going to movie theaters after the 2012 theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado.

"Just going out to eat or anything scares me these days," Oeswein said. He worries about what his young children may see if something happens. 

Last year, the city had more than 350 gunshot victims, according to numbers from the Louisville Metro Police Department.

But when a shooting hits close to home, the psychological effects can be profound.

Frank Farley, a psychologist at Temple University and a former president of the American Psychological Association, said people's interpretation of a situation can affect their emotional response to it.

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Even though statistics show the likelihood of a person being involved in a shooting at a restaurant is relatively small, he said, people may see a shooting at a local restaurant they're familiar with and say, "Oh, I'll never go back to Olive Garden! I'll never eat at a restaurant ever, any restaurant!"

Farley said it's particularly scary when a shooting happens at a place people go often.

"They’re in schools, malls, the places where we live our lives," he said. "That raises the stress, anxiety and fear considerably."

Dewey Cornell, a clinical psychologist and professor of education at the University of Virginia, said that "gun violence is a flood. It goes everywhere," so it's not unexpected that it would sometimes happen at popular restaurants or stores.

For instance, in a study he conducted on school shootings, he found that homicides are 10 times more likely to occur in a restaurant than a school. But his study also found that places like bars, restaurants and schools make up only about 12 percent of the homicide incidents nationwide. The majority are at people's homes. 

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Americans should be concerned about the high level of homicides in general, he said, but it's important for people to keep things in context.

The recent shooting death of Jose Munoz at Olive Garden didn't deter sisters Mikayla and Britni Wientjes and their dad from eating at the restaurant a couple days later.

Their father actually called ahead, they said, to see if the restaurant was offering any deals or specials in the wake of the shooting. (It wasn't.)

Mikayla, 19, said it was sad to hear about the shooting death and that there was no reason for someone to get killed. 

Britni, 20, said shootings are just a sad fact of life now, and Mikayla nodded.

"It's something that is normalized that shouldn't be normalized," Mikayla said after she put her leftovers in her car. 

More:Olive Garden shooting may have been self-defense, attorney says

Metro Councilwoman Madonna Flood, whose district includes the Olive Garden on Outer Loop, said she drove by the restaurant the day after the shooting and it was packed.

"There was some comfort that people are still doing what they always did," she said.

That's not the case for Carter.

The former Olive Garden employee said he's felt a lot of anxiety in public since the shooting.

"There's a sense of danger looming that I have never felt before," Carter said.

Darcy Costello contributed reporting. Allison Ross: 502-582-4241; aross@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @allisonSross. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/allisonr.