![\"\"](\"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Elisa-Tissot-Greenery1st-flr-CAB-041784-murder-site.jpg\" "\\"Elisa")
<\/a>1984 Pulp Fiction @ TESC when the Music died<\/p><\/div>\n
On April 17, 1984, Elisa Tissot was having coffee with her friends at a corner table of The Evergreen State College cafeteria in the CAB building a little before 9 in the morning. It had been a\u00a0chilly Tuesday morning with clouds hanging around the campus. To top it off, a full moon was scheduled that night.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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\nOutside the main doors of the cafeteria a man was seen walking back and\u00a0forth in the hallway for approximately 30 minutes. An anonymous eyewitness, who was sitting with\u00a0Elisa Tissot recounts the minutes:<\/strong><\/div>\n
\nOutside the main doors of the cafeteria a man was seen walking back and\u00a0forth in the hallway for approximately 30 minutes. An anonymous eyewitness, who was sitting with\u00a0Elisa Tissot recounts the minutes:<\/strong><\/div>\n
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We talked about school and classes and things like that for about five minutes when Elisa looked\u00a0<\/em>over my shoulder and said lightheartedly, \u201cHere he comes.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>I glanced over my shoulder and saw Mike three feet away from the table. He had a gun in his hands\u00a0<\/em>by then and was just beginning to take aim with it. Before anyone could move or say one word, Mike began\u00a0<\/em>shooting.<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
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Elisa screamed and fell out of her chair. I thought he was firing blanks until I saw the corner of\u00a0<\/em>Elisa\u2019s chair was gone.\u00a0<\/em>Elisa was on the floor and Mike moved his position slightly to get a better aim. He continued firing\u00a0<\/em>at Elisa until the clip was empty.\u00a0<\/em>Mike then walked up close to Elisa, pointed the gun directly at her and pulled the trigger. The gun\u00a0<\/em>just made a click noise as no bullets were left in the clip or the chamber.<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
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Mike then looked at all of us at the table. He stood there for a moment and looked around the\u00a0<\/em>room.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>His facial expression was like, \u201cThat\u2019ll teach you.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
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Michael Pimentel slowly walked out of the cafeteria with the Colt .45 caliber automatic. He\u00a0sat down on the cement barrier at the bus loop and lit a cigarette. A witness of the cafeteria\u00a0shooting, Thomas Sanders, ran after Michael while a firefighter, who happened to be eating his\u00a0breakfast inside the cafeteria, administered CPR on Elisa. Thomas Sanders picked up the gun off of\u00a0the adjacent grass and heard Michael speak, \u201cI guess they\u2019ll give me the death penalty for this.\u201d\u00a0Sanders turned in the gun to Gary Russell, the chief of Evergreen Security. As Russell, Sanders, and\u00a0Russell\u2019s friend, Sam LaGrave approached Pimentel, Pimentel said, \u201cI just killed a girl. I pumped\u00a0seven shots into her.\u201d<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Elisa Tissot was still alive, but in critical condition. With one wound in the leg, and three in\u00a0the chest area, she was rushed by ambulance to St. Peter\u2019s Hospital off of Lily Road in Lacey.\u00a0She lived for only an hour and a half after the shooting. She was 21.\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Michael Pimentel and Elisa Tissot were complete opposites in personalities as a couple.\u00a0They both met in 1982 and broke up in 1983. Elisa had an outgoing personality and everyone\u00a0loved her, including Michael. She was an outstanding student and if The Evergreen State College\u00a0were to give out grades, then she would have a high grade point average. Elisa had a loving character\u00a0where she enjoyed hugs, poetry, mysticism, and her unselfish practice of helping others, whether in\u00a0schoolwork, or in mental depression.\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
Elisa volunteered often for the YMCA and as a camp\u00a0counselor for YMCA\u2019s Camp Seymour in Tacoma.\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
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More than 250 people showed up to her memorial service at The Evergreen State College\u00a0library lobby, where mourners dipped lemon slices in honey and ate them to symbolize the\u00a0sweetness of life and bitterness of Elisa Tissot\u2019s death. After the hour long memorial service, a May-pole dance followed, then a lively folk music dance done in her honor. \u201cIf you knew Elisa,\u201d said\u00a0Roger Dickie, a friend of Elisa, \u201cyou\u2019d know she wouldn\u2019t want us to sit around and cry.\u201d<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Michael was 27 at the time of the shooting. He started school in 1981, but would drop\u00a0out a few weeks later. He often wore an army jacket with a crippled left leg. Most people at the time\u00a0would often mistake him as a Vietnam veteran, which was entirely false. Michael fought from 1977-1980 as a Lance\u00a0Corporal for the Rhodesian army. Since then, he suffered with Delayed Stress\u00a0Syndrome (DSS) which he had thought he had a mild case while in counseling in 1983.\u00a0Pimentel thought that Delayed Stress Syndrome is \u201cwhen a veteran gets married, settles in\u00a0with a job and then loses control with flashbacks of the fighting in a war scenario\u201d.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Delayed Stress\u00a0Syndrome was often diagnosed to Vietnam Veterans and later was renamed as Post-<\/strong>Traumatic Stress\u00a0Disorder (PTSD). According to the American Psychiatric Association, the symptoms would show\u00a0up as<\/strong><\/div>\n
\u201canxiety or increased arousal that were not present before the trauma. These symptoms may include difficulty\u00a0<\/em>falling or staying asleep that may be due to recurrent nightmares during which the traumatic event is relived, hyper-\u00a0<\/em>vigilance, and exaggerated startle response. Some individuals report irritability or outbursts or anger or difficulty\u00a0<\/em>concentrating or completing tasks.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
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One night, Michael Pimentel sat down with Francisco Chateaubriand, a long time collegiate\u00a0acquaintance of Michael a few weeks before the shooting. He told Francisco that he thought it\u00a0would be alright for Elisa to come back to him and had a hard time trying to get back with her after\u00a0the break up a year ago. \u201cYou know,\u201d he said, \u201csometimes I sit and dream that I\u2019ve shot her and\u00a0everything\u2019s all right.\u201d<\/strong><\/div>\n
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\u201cYou really wouldn\u2019t want to do that,\u201d Francisco said to Michael, \u201cWhat good would it do?\u00a0She\u2019d be gone and you\u2019d still be alone. It would be nuts.\u201d Later on, they talked about California,\u00a0where he thought about relocating to and nothing more was said about Elisa.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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On April 12, a few days before the shooting, Elisa became concerned about Michael stalking\u00a0her and went to the Olympia Police Department as a reference from Evergreen Security. \u201cShe was\u00a0concerned about his welfare as during numerous conversations with him he threatened suicide,\u201d said\u00a0Officer Trevor Seal.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Elisa had already explained her situation to her boss at the Tacoma YMCA and\u00a0college security. Michael was showing up constantly to her job and at Evergreen trying to get back\u00a0with Elisa. Seal said he would try to contact Pimentel, but was told that Michael left for California instead.\u00a0After the shooting, Michael was convicted of 1st\u00a0degree murder with a weapon by the jury in\u00a0July 1984. Part of his plea was that he had a mental condition and wasn\u2019t mentally competent at the\u00a0time of the murder. He appealed his trial in 1987 and then again in 1994.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Michael was taken from\u00a0the status of life in prison to 30 years due in part to his mental treatment.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Note: According to the Olympian, Trevor Seal was a deputy of the Thurston County Sheriff\u2019s\u00a0Department. But, Officer Trevor Seal was never part of the Thurston County Sheriff\u2019s Department, but\u00a0was with the Olympian Police Department when Tissot\u2019s report was filed.<\/div>\n
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This was done at the court of appeals in Tacoma. Much of the staff that convicted Pimentel are currently still working\u00a0at the Thurston County Superior Court including the prosecutor who is currently a judge.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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The Elisa Tissot murder became such a major influence, that the Washington State Senate\u00a0had passed a bill within ten months, Senate Bill 3549 (passed on February 4, 1985) and Engrossed\u00a0Substitute Senate Bill 3012 (passed on January 24, 1985), where it requires that all domestic violence be recognized and law enforcement is required to protect the victims of domestic violence.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Click HERE for newspaper clip: Coed shot, killed, at TESC<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The following tragedy gave rise to the Washington State Legislature reacting by passing domestic violence and anti-harrasment laws including RCW 10.14: On April 17, 1984, Elisa Tissot was having coffee with her friends at a corner table of The Evergreen … Continue reading