In the year since the mass stabbing at the Union Gospel Mission, the knife wounds inflicted on 12 people at Salem’s largest shelter have turned into scars.  The downtown shelter itself has changed too, with new security measures, and the city of Salem now approaches downtown safety differently .At around 7:15 p.m. on a Sunday in June, the shelter was preparing to close. It typically provided sleeping quarters for 100 men it considers guests. A man who’d stayed there the previous night decided he wanted to leave. He approached the front desk to get his belongings, checked in as required when he arrived. He then pulled a knife, swinging it as employees and guests rushed to intervene, some getting injured in the melee that followed. The attacker ran out the front door to a traffic island on Northeast Commercial Street. Salem police found him there and had him handcuffed less than five minutes after the stabbing began.  A year later, emotions still run raw for some of UGM’s employees – numbering about 55 –  and guests.  “The emotional recovery, that’s been the hardest part,” said Craig Smith, UGM’s executive director.The stabbing happened on his 30th day on the job. He walked through the scene in the lobby immediately after the assault. The memory makes him pause to collect himself, tears springing to his eyes. “That was just not — that was not good. Especially knowing that all that stuff that was on the floor had come… had come from my staff. That was the hardest part,” Smith said.Something else comes to mind when he thinks of the incident.“The first thing that comes to my mind is God’s provision for this ministry. He has been so good to us over the last year,” Smith said.UGM, located at 777 Commercial St. N.E., is a faith-based ministry which has a primary goal of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, including through twice-daily chapel services. The shelter offers guests food, shelter, and connections to healthcare and other supportive resources.For Smith, the miracles started two minutes after the attack. He said the first Salem police officer on the scene carried a wound-care kit. He’d only had the specialized bandaging for a week, having recently completed training on how to use it to save a life, Smith said.The blessings continued the next morning, when Smith arrived at the mission to see his staff on duty, serving breakfast to 120 hungry people.  “I drove in that morning, tears in my eyes. I just couldn’t believe it,” Smith said.There was also the service later that week, when the community gathered in UGM’s chapel to pray for the survivors. Through tears, Smith told them that one employee had recently woken from two days in a medically induced coma. Josue Acosta-Montero had been running the check-in desk and was the first victim. His wounds had been life threatening. When Acosta-Montero, who couldn’t speak due to his injuries, was given a pen and paper to write with, he had a message for his coworkers: “I love you all.”His recovery was a miracle, Smith said, and Acosta-Montero still works at the mission. His survival, and the first-responders attending the service where Smith shared Acosta-Montero’s note, are the good things which still bring Smith to tears.  “It was horrible, and it was really bad for those who were attacked. But if it had to happen, it’s made us stronger. And I think that’s been the thing that’s clear, now. It took us a while to get to that place,” Smith said. A displayed note from a hospitalized Union Gospel Mission staff member reads “I love you.” Executive Director Craig smith leads a group prayer for those impacted by a June 1 mass stabbing at the shelter. The shelter requested no outside photographers. (Courtesy/ Bryce Funk – High Sierra Collective) The aftermath Within hours of the stabbing, the Salem Police Department held a series of internal debriefings, reviewing the effectiveness of the agency’s response. They identified areas of improvement. Altogether, around 21 officers and detectives were involved with the investigation, according to spokesman Sgt. Jon Hardy.The review found that the police, headquartered across the street from the mission, had responded quickly and effectively. It also found that officers needed to stock up patrol cars with mass casualty kits, which include supplies like combat gauze and chest seals, Hardy said. The agency had already been looking to increase safety resources downtown prior to the stabbing. The event spurred broader discussions about downtown safety, Hardy said.A few weeks afterward, Mayor Julie Hoy brought up the stabbing to successfully lead the Salem City Council to direct then-Police Chief Trevor Womack to plan to increase police presence downtown. That summer, Salem held a series of community meetings as councilors considered ways to address concerns from residents and businesses.The city council subsequently expanded the Homeless Services Team of police officers who address homelessness by meeting with campers, connecting them with services and posting notices to remove illegal campsites. The city also launched a new six-month pilot program to team up paramedics and a mental health worker for a new response to emergency calls relating to homelessness, substance use and mental health crises. UGM leaders were involved in those conversations, and Smith continues to be a part of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. That is a group of 30 Salem volunteers from government, nonprofits, law enforcement and other services planning to improve public safety in Salem. “We willingly will be part of those conversations, because we have a stake, and we also have a stake in this community. We’re an important piece of the community’s services to homeless people,” Smith said. “(The stabbing) didn’t really drag us into a conversation we didn’t want to be in, because we want to be in that conversation.” Since the day of the stabbing, Smith said his first priority has been the health and safety of UGM’s guests and employees. As the gears turned to make changes throughout downtown, UGM worked to change the shelter itself. UGM invested over $120,000 in security equipment and modifications in the past year, Smith said, using recommendations from the Salem Police Department, Marion County Sheriff’s Office and experts from Philadelphia Insurance Companies, who did walkthroughs to evaluate risks.Today, weapons detectors at the mission entrance screen guests, and bags of personal belongings get handed through an outside window rather than at the front desk. Another step was to remove one handle from the front door so no one can wrap a chain around them to trap people inside.  “I think that having visible security measures in place was super helpful immediately,” Smith said. “It wasn’t something we wanted to do, because it makes it feel a little institutional, and a lot of our guys have spent time in jail and we didn’t want to feel like that. But I think that that immediately lowered the anxiety level, and it’s really helped my staff as well.” A place to safely rest becomes a Salem crime scene Addressing trauma Still, the trauma hangs heavy in UGM’s lobby.“There isn’t anybody who isn’t aware, now, that there can be potential dangers. Especially for the guys that work out in the front on the floor,” Smith said. “The trauma of being here, during that time, is pretty great … You don’t just get over something like this just because you say it’s over.”Smith said that his staff are the most resilient people he’s worked with, and many previously endured trauma, having joined UGM’s team after being guests themselves. “It gives them some really strong coping skills, and it also creates a vulnerability to certain traumas which can trigger you. I am always concerned about that,” Smith said.In the weeks following the attack, staff attended counseling sessions from the Salem Pastoral Counseling Center and from Salem Heights Church. The visiting chaplains provided Acute Stress Adaptive Protocol training, a type of therapy designed to help lessen the mental health impact of a traumatic incident.  Employees are currently in de-escalation training, learning how to avoid saying or doing things that could unintentionally cause someone agitated or in a mental health crisis to react violently.“De-escalation training is really important in a ministry like this, because we have a lot of people with mental health issues, and they’ll come in, and they generally feel that everybody’s kind of out to get them,” Smith said. Tony L. Williams, then 42, the man accused of the stabbing, apparently was one of those.The day before the stabbing, he’d been on a commercial bus headed to Bend when he got off at Salem’s Amtrak station. He wasn’t allowed back on after being considered a threat to the other passengers. He found his way to the mission, where he spent the night. A day later, he was in jail, accused of stabbing 12 people. Oregon’s criminal justice and mental health systems failed to provide lasting intervention over a 20-year period where Williams cycled in and out of jails and treatment, an analysis by Salem Reporter found. He is now charged with attacking 11 after one charge was dropped. The day after the stabbing, on June 2, Williams appeared before a state judge at the Marion County Circuit Court Annex. He appeared agitated and rambled at the filled courtroom. He complained about the jail conditions and claimed staff were pumping gas into his cell, and that his actions had been self-defense. Marion Circuit Judge Michelle Vlach-Ing subsequently found him unfit to proceed in court and ordered him to mental health treatment at the Oregon State Hospital. At the state’s psychiatric hospital, Williams was to receive medication and legal counseling, Vlach-Ing’s order said. Williams has been hospitalized since but a federal order mandates that he be transferred to jail at the end of July. Tony L. Williams appeared in the Marion County Criminal Court Annex on Monday, June 2, 2025 to face charges alleging he stabbed 12 people at the Union Gospel Mission in Salem. (Madeleine Moore/Salem Reporter) Smith said that he monitors  Williams’ case.“I hope that the outcome of this is that he won’t ever do this again, because he’s a really dangerous guy. I personally believe he’s evil, and that makes us need to get down on our knees and pray for him,” Smith said. “To really pray for a change of heart, because he’s a tough case.” Smith said that he hopes that when the community looks back on the mass stabbing, they think about the way Salem people came together to support each other, and that they think of UGM as a place blessed by God. “Our faith has brought us through this,” Smith said. “We have a big scar, and we will always have that scar, but that scar is healing, and it’s making us stronger.” Reporter Madeleine Moore contributed reporting. Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-575-1251. Make Salem Reporter your trusted source for accurate, independent local news – every day. Stay informed and connected to your community. Subscribe today. The post One year later, emotional wounds from UGM mass stabbing continue to heal appeared first on Salem Reporter. ...read more read less