Indifferent silence. Unanswered cries. A murderer and rapist running away through the night.

Cruelty unchecked. And then human civilization, which did not stop this from happening, which
did not even know it was happening, slowly returned, slowly wrapped itself back around the
women, layer by insufficient layer (264).

On the night that two women were raped, beaten, and stabbed to the point that one dies, a
troubled young man runs for his life knowing that he is the one that committed these crimes. A
few days later, he is arrested and taken in. Little did Isaiah know that his entire life (before the
attacks) is going to be examined piece by tiny piece.
With her world thrown into a whirlwind and her fiance, Teresa, now dead only months before
their wedding ceremony, Jennifer tries to piece her life back together. While she does this, the
court system is trying to piece together the attackers life from the day he was born to the night
of the attack.
For the court system, the paperwork for Isaiah has only begun to pile up showing the numerous
times that the law has been involved in his life as he grew up. These events where his life
crossed with the police range from issues with his parents fighting, Isaiah getting out of hand
and losing his temper, to even Isaiah proving that he is a danger to not only himself but others
around him. As the court system looks over all of these events, there is a noticeable need for an
explanation as to why nothing prevented Isaiah from being out and about the night that the
attacks took place. The fact that the law didnt step into Isaiahs life to the extent that was
needed to prevent anything before the attacks took place stumped several of the people
working the case, including the judge. As for the explanation on why: well, there isnt one.
In the second half of the book, While the City Slept, Eli Sanders outlines the two years after the
attacks took place. This timeline of events includes different insights from different people
involved in the case. These people include the detective in charge of the investigation, the
judge, Isaiahs family, the victims families, the doctors who evaluated Isaiahs mental health,
and a few other. The timeline leaves little out as it includes every event that led up to the final
trial that determined if Isaiah was guilty or not. There are numerous struggles that the court finds
in Isaiahs past that in a way shape who Isaiah both decides and is forced to be. Isaiahs paths
of distress, and his paths of crime and violence, seem to have regularly circled back onto the
paths of his childhood: back to Auburn, back to the Burien Transit Center, back to places
reachable by long public bus rides across stretches of suburbia, rides like the ones that got him
to Puget Sound Adventist Academy as a teenager (153).
Having grown up in a family where fighting was an everyday event between mother and father,
Isaiah never had great relationships with his own parents. His father sent him away to a
boarding school at the age of twelve after he found Isaiah smoking a cigarette. This caused
even more tension in the relationship between Isaiah and his parents. After many fights that
involved both verbal and physical abuse, Isaiahs parents finally got a divorce. Around this time

Isaiah and his other siblings went to a therapist to help them through the divorce of their
parents. At this point in time the specialist that analyzed the kids said that It appears that the
oldest son has endured a great deal of the fathers abusive behavior. . . This son would also
benefit from the mental health counseling in order to help him deal with the experiences he has
endured at the hands of the father. This never happened (130-131). These experiences helped
shape who Isaiah became as an individual. The main issue was lack of funding for the mental
health programs that Isaiah needed. At the time when Isaiah found himself in need of help, the
vast majority of Americans facing psychological distress were, as always, nonviolent, far more
likely to be victims of crimes than perpetrators, far more likely to harm themselves than anyone
else (151).
Isaiah was finally given medication for his mental issues but refused to take the medication. In
Isaiahs case, the tendency to reject medication might have been heightened by what records
suggest his father had taught him: that the correct response to personal trouble is merely
increased will and anything else is failure (158). By refusing to take the medications prescribed
to him, his mood swings increased drastically. This was one more reason that the attacks that
ruined two young lovebirds took place.
Even though Jennifer lost her fiance, her innocence, and her peace of mind that night, she
stood strong throughout the entire trial process that took two years. And then Jennifer would
testify, relive and recount it all, bear witness and bare her pain for the hope of justice (265). She
never wanted revenge on Isaiah for what he did because she knew that he had a bad childhood.
She stood strong not only for herself but also for Teresa who risked, and lost, her own life to
save them both that night.
In the end, it was Teresa and Jennifer that chose who they wanted to be even though they were
raised differently. They found happiness in their decision to be together, a happiness that Isaiah
never had. Isaiah never sought out new ways to change his life or fix it. I now realize that it
takes a lot of personality, strength, and determination to change your life even for the littlest
reasons. As for people like Isaiah, a little bit of help along the way is needed and if there isnt
enough funding for this help, then there is little chance of changing their lives for the better.