Seattle in Perspective

Grisly Man
Lessons of a predator.
By Knute Berger

"Werner Herzog made a documentary about a hippie-dippy surfer dude who lived with grizzlies in Alaska. He petted them and gave them names like Mr. Chocolate until, one day, the "grizzly man" was eaten alive by one of his furry pals. The lesson, Herzog explained, was that it's dangerous to make friends with an indifferent predator.

The events of Saturday, March 25, convey something of the same message. Not that the enormous, bearlike Kyle Huff—6 feet 5 inches and some 280 pounds—was as obvious a danger as a griz, but he was a predator nonetheless. He stalked his prey, young people he'd met at a zombie-themed rave. These kids invited this oddball loner to party with them. He returned the favor by drinking their beer, smoking their pot, and then blowing them away with his 12-gauge shotgun and semiautomatic pistol. He killed six and wounded two critically. Then he blew his own brains out.

We're lucky he did. With our justice system, even with a conviction it's unlikely Huff would have wound up on death row, and even if he had, it would have been many years and many appeals before his date with a lethal injection or the hangman's noose. He did us all a favor.

Still, he left us with questions about why he became a cold and calculated killer who taunted his victims as he gunned them down. These unanswered questions would likely have remained had he lived..........

If you think gun control could have prevented this crime, consider that Huff's arsenal included a baseball bat and a machete. This guy was going to find a way to kill, no matter what.

There is evil in the world and no amount of legislating or second-guessing will snuff it out. An Alaskan grizzly might be a deadly predator, but it acts out of instinct for its own survival. We expect more of our fellow humans. Kyle Huff may have had his reasons for doing what he did, but even if we had the answer, it wouldn't save us from the stark reality that there are predators among us who feed on the innocent."

Give Mr. Berger's entire piece a read. Then send him a thank you.
kberger@seattleweekly.com