The shooting death of a police officer Thursday at Virginia Tech was especially painful for basketball coach Seth Greenberg because he knew the man.
“It’s tragic,” Greenberg, a New York native, told SNY.tv by phone Friday morning. “I knew the officer. It’s senseless.”
Deriek W. Crouse, 39, was married with five children and step-children. He had given Greenberg a speeding ticket a year ago as the coach was rushing to get back to his office, and had also worked security at Virginia Tech basketball games.
Greenberg’s older daughter, Paige, was a student at Virginia Tech four years ago, when the massacre there claimed 33 lives.
This time around, his middle daughter, Ella was on campus for the tragedy.
“She was on her way to a reading day luncheon for our student-athletes,” Greenberg said. “I was going to meet her for lunch.”
Greenberg said he ultimately ran out in the middle of the lockdown, grabbed his daughter and brought her back to the basketball offices.
Greenberg said he also spoke to the parents of several recruits who were understandably concerned.
“I called a couple of prospects and some parents,” he said. “There’s no doubt they’re shook up a little bit.”
Greenberg said violent crimes like this happen every day in a place like New York City, but that Blacksburg, Va., should be a more serene place because, unlike some college towns, the community and the university are in total “symmetry.”
“It’s tragic because people’s perceptions of this community and this university is so skewed because of these tragedies and it’s not really the way it is,” he said.
“One senseless tragic act will not break our spirit or our sole.”
