Seattle is no stranger to violence against the Jewish Community. In 2006, a man opened fire inside the Belltown offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. One woman was killed and five other women were badly wounded.
A survivor of the shooting is transforming her experience into a life of activism.
Cheryl Stumbo sat on a park bench in North Seattle, reading a message on her cellphone.
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"She's from Washington state," said Stumbo. "She says 'You don't know me. But I know you. I've heard you speak and I admire you greatly.' "
The texts and phone calls started coming early for Stumbo. Strangers and friends were moved to act by the devastating images of the deadly synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh.
"I have people who I am close to," she said, "and who I know personally have been reaching out all day long and just saying I'm thinking of you."
They were thinking of her because of her own experience with a violent rampage.
Twelve years ago, a gunman barged into the Jewish Federation, holding Stumbo's 14-year-old niece at gunpoint to get past security. The commotion caused her to come out of her office, and suddenly she was a target, too.
"I was shot at point blank range," she said, pointing to her abdomen. "The man who was holding a 9 mm glock loaded with hollow point bullets. Hollow point bullets are designed to explode as they go through soft tissue. So that bullet went through, tore through my small and large intestines and my uterus."
She survived 20 surgeries, but still bears the scars and feels the pain of that terrible July day. Six years later, in the wake of the deadly Sandy Hook shooting, she changed the course of her life and became an activist for gun safety.
"I think it's important that people who have survived something like what happened today speak out about it if they're able to," she said, "if they're strong enough to do that."
KIRO 7's Deborah Horne asked her why.
"Because gun violence is one of those things that, it's like a blip on the screen for people who haven't experienced it," Stumbo said. "But if you've survived the shooting you know that today is the start of a long, long path of recovery for those who weren't killed today. But also path of recovery for the friends and families of those who were killed. And that long after it's out of the news, they're going to be processing and dealing with it."
Stumbo says she is now studying to convert to Judaism.
“I was raised Unitarian which has a lot in common with Judaism,” she said. “This experience, I think, brought me even closer to the Jewish community.”
Stumbo says even when tragedies happen like in Pittsburgh, her activism gives her hope that change can happen, too.
Cox Media Group
