Chris Dierker got an early morning call on Oct. 19, 2017. The father of one of his daughter’s friends told him to call his own daughter, Megan Dierker, because of an incident at a friend’s apartment. Dierker left a voice message for her. Ten minutes later, his phone rang.
“Chris picks it up and is like, ‘Hey, Meggy, what’s going on?’” said Kristen Johnson, Chris’ wife and Megan’s stepmother since Megan was 9 years old. “It was the police, and they said, ‘Your daughter’s been shot, and she’s in surgery now, but she’s expected to recover.’”
Johnson revisited what happened that night through her own studies as a Colorado State University student. She is earning her master’s degree in social work from CSU this month, a little more than five years after a shooting that left three people dead, including CSU student Savannah McNealy.
McNealy, 22, was close with Megan, who survived. McNealy’s boyfriend, Michael Zamora, shot and killed McNealy and his Air Force buddy Tristian Kemp, 26. Zamora, 30, then died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Johnson and five others recently finished a capstone project examining the impact of public perception on law enforcement recruitment and retention.
“We were interested in this topic because of everything that’s going on in the world and policing, and it was very personal to me for several reasons,” Johnson said, citing a report that the police response time in Denver averages more than 30 minutes, at least in part due to understaffing. “Had that been the case when the shooting occurred, that could have made the difference between Megan surviving and not surviving.”
Study: Public perception of police hurts staffing
Johnson said her team’s research showed that of the more than 100 voluntary and anonymous respondents from several police departments, a majority of officers are satisfied with their work. But Johnson said 30% of officers were considering leaving within the next year, and 20% of all officers said they may leave because of media and public perception.
Johnson, who lives in Denver and is the CEO and president of Mountain View Clinical Research pharmaceutical testing company, wanted to get this degree to better counsel those affected by physical and mental pain.
She is from a family connected to law enforcement. Her father was a district attorney for decades in the Oklahoma panhandle. She has a brother who is an attorney, and her husband Chris made a late-career switch in 2015 from marketing to become a Colorado state trooper.
“The motivation for me is just that I have a respect for law enforcement,” Johnson said.“I do think there needs to be changes within law enforcement. But I think that with education and knowledge and increasing transparency, we can promote a healthy relationship between law enforcement and community.”
Johnson worked on the project with classmates Erick Donlucas, Drew Feldbaum, Jed Hyland, Emily McRae and Joanne Puchek. Donlucas, a recently minted Fort Collins police officer, saw the project from several sides. He said his supervisors have asked to see the full report.
“We are part of the community and the community is part of us,” Donlucas said. “We want the community to trust us. At the macro level, people don’t support (law enforcement), but at the micro level, they do.”
Johnson said some of her classmates initially were lukewarm toward the topic.
“They were just not pro-law enforcement. At all,” she said. “And so, the first time we presented our idea amongst our colleagues, it was eye opening. It was very eye opening to see their reaction.
“And then it was so rewarding when we went back and presented again in front of them later in this semester. And the feedback we received from them was so different. Removing that personal emotion and just presenting stats eliminated some of that issue … it was such a good feeling.”
‘She made it through’
Among those at the Dec. 2 Social Work poster presentation were some other Fort Collins police officers. That included officer Bryce Younkin, who found and treated Megan and carried her to the ambulance. EMS initially wasn’t allowed on scene because it hadn’t been determined if it was an active shooter situation.
“Just by happenstance, I ended up being the first one on scene,” said Younkin, a Fort Collins officer since 2016. “As I walked in, there were several deceased individuals on the ground. And then there was Megan.
“She had some pretty catastrophic injuries. She was an absolute rock star. Very, very strong. Communicating with me. She was very calm. I packed the wound, assisted in carrying Megan out to the ambulance and to the hospital. Like the fighter she is, she made it through.”
Younkin and fellow officer Dean Stratton, who also attended the poster presentation, were among those who were awarded life-saving awards by Fort Collins Police Services.
“I’m proud of Kristen. I’m proud of Megan,” Younkin said. “Kristen’s taken something that could have easily been a tragedy for their family and … she took that energy and that grief and she’s obviously turned it into something very positive. Very positive for law enforcement and something very positive that I think the community should probably see.”
A friendship stronger than death
Megan, who has had at least four surgeries to her hip and gluteal muscles, rarely comments about the shooting, but provided photos for this story. Johnson said her stepdaughter wants to keep the focus on McNealy, whom Megan’s parents remember as happy, intellectual and artistic.
The death of McNealy, who was an intern in CSU’s Division of University Marketing and Communications and worked at The Rocky Mountain Collegian, deeply affected the CSU campus. Hundreds gathered to mourn McNealy and then-President Tony Frank spoke to the crowd. She was remembered this year with the repainting of the Ram Walk, which McNealy originally designed.
Megan and Savannah were among a group of young women who grew up together, with Dierker and Laura LoDico attending CU Boulder and Savannah and Taylar Saul attending CSU.
“Nothing was keeping any of those girls apart,” Johnson said. “The group of friends is incredible and very tight-knit.”
Near the fourth anniversary of the shooting, Megan posted a picture of her and Savannah, saying, “4 years since we lost you. And my heart still hurts all the same. There will never be a day that I don’t miss you, Sav.”
Savannah’s friends got “SM” tattoos on their wrist, in a script similar to the way McNealy signed her initials. Usually, the friends get together on the anniversary in Savannah’s beloved Great Sand Dunes, but they all couldn’t be together this year. Megan is at Pacific University learning to become a physician’s assistant. Johnson said Saul traveled to Oregon to be with Megan on the fifth anniversary.
“My best friend was taken away from me – right next to me. And I laid surrounded by a nightmare unsure of whether I would survive the night myself. But October 19 also marks another year of life. It marks another year of growth and strength from the darkness of that night. But obviously, that’s complicated in itself because I wish it was another year of life with you by my side. I miss you every single day, sav.”
– From a social media post by Megan Dierker about three years after the shooting
Stepmother, daughter get more education
Johnson’s eyes welled up with tears when asked about Megan’s journey.
“She’s amazing. She’s amazing,” Johnson said. “She’s my hero. I can’t talk too much about it because I’ll cry.”
Megan was back in school at CU Boulder the semester after the incident. She spent time at the CU’s Anschutz Medical Campus getting her hours in as a certified nurse aide in preparation for her PA education.
“She and a nurse made eye contact, and they knew they knew each other from somewhere,” Kristen said. “They started talking, and it was the nurse that took care of her at the hospital, at the Medical Center of the Rockies.”
Johnson was nominated to be one of CSU’s outstanding graduates by Neomi Vin-Raviv, a CSU assistant professor in CSU’s School of Social Work. Vin-Raviv said Johnson was “pioneering an innovative research capstone.”
“I would have never dreamt that to be possible,” Johnson said of the outstanding graduate honor, especially in a master’s program completed almost entirely online. “It’s an amazing honor, and I don’t really have words to say what that feels like.”
Hopes for the future
Johnson said the research addresses officers’ feelings about the public perception of police departments. But she said negative connotations about police are somewhat mitigated if officers feel they have supporting resources from their departments: “I hope that it brings public awareness of what is happening with law enforcement today.”
As far as trying to make sense of the shooting that ended and changed so many lives, Johnson said the “why” is elusive.
“That’s a big question I wish we could all answer,” she said. “We don’t really know the why. I don’t think we’ll ever know the why.”
Ironically, the poster presentation was Johnson’s first time on the CSU campus; some cohort classes were in Denver and most were online. Her second visit will be to walk at commencement on Dec. 16.
But her family will be forever tied to Fort Collins — negatively and positively — due to the events of Oct. 19, 2017. Johnson said whatever good she and her stepdaughter can do to honor those lost is key.
“I think knowing that Savannah’s memory survives would be super comforting for her,” Johnson said. “There’s no reason for a loss like this, but the fact that her memory lives on is incredible.”
The School of Social Work is part of CSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences.
