Fired campus worker shoots gun, is tackled

A pair of maintenance managers at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma were lauded by police yesterday for disarming and tackling a longtime campus custodian who fired off two gunshots after learning that he was being fired after more than 20 years on the job.

No one was seriously hurt in the 8:40 a.m. fight in a parking lot at the north end of the private university, in the heart of Tacoma.

"Basically, these guys, in our minds, are heroes," Tacoma police spokesman Jim Mattheis said. "Who knows what kind of spree he could have gone on. They did a good job of stopping this guy and keeping him from harming anyone."

The 52-year-old groundskeeper, Udo Gretza, who has no criminal record, was booked into the Pierce County Jail yesterday, Mattheis said.

The fight began after custodial managers James Vance and Craig Benjamin delivered the bad news to Gretza and followed him as he angrily walked back to his pickup to collect his campus keys, Mattheis said.

Instead of the keys, Gretza grabbed a .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol from the visor of the truck, Mattheis said. As he whirled around to face his former bosses, one of them knocked Gretza's arm downward just as the gun went off. The bullet tore into a parked car.

"At that moment when I saw the gun, there's only one fundamental thought, and that is, 'Don't allow that to be pointed at any of us," said Benjamin, who suffered cuts to his hands and was bitten in the tussle.

Vance and Benjamin continued wrestling with Gretza and pushed him backward into his truck, Mattheis said. The gun fired again, piercing the roof of the truck. Eventually, the pistol was knocked free and a third university employee grabbed it.

The supervisors finally pinned Gretza as campus security and Tacoma police arrived.

Police found that Gretza's Glock handgun had been fully loaded and that he had a full magazine in the pickup. But Mattheis said police don't know whether Gretza brought the gun to work anticipating his dismissal.

Gretza was fired for wrongdoing, but the university's personnel rules prevent it from discussing the exact reasons, said university spokesman Greg Scheiderer.

It wasn't known how far away any students may have been from the shooting, though the maintenance buildings are set some distance from the hub of campus activities, Scheiderer said.

"We're just grateful that (the managers) were able to subdue him, and nobody got shot," Scheiderer said. "They certainly reacted quickly."

Ian Ith: 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com