SEATTLE - A 26-year-old University of Washington researcher was shot to death in her office Monday morning by a former boyfriend who then turned the gun on himself, police said.

In the last weeks of her life, Rebecca Griego was taking drastic steps to avoid an ex-boyfriend whose violence and threats had left her visibly shaken.

She changed her cell phone number. She moved. And early last month, Griego sought a restraining order, posting Jonathan Rowan's picture around her office so co-workers could serve him with the papers if he showed up.

University police said Rowan, a British citizen in his 40s, was not affiliated with the school.

Officials also said the shooter had called Griego at least twice at work with death threats, and friends said she had passed around photos of Rowan and warnings about his threatening behavior.

"I cannot find him but he can find me (knows my place of work)," Griego wrote in a restraining order petition filed March 6 in King County Superior Court.

KING

Two people were killed in a shooting at the University of Washington's architecture building.

University Assistant Police Chief Ray Wittmier said officers who responded at about 9:30 a.m. to a call of shots fired found the two people in an office on the fourth floor of Gould Hall, the university's architecture building.

Wittmier said about six shots were fired, and a handgun was found in the room. There no eyewitnesses and no one else was hurt, he said.

Lance Nguyen, a researcher who worked with Griego at the Runstad Center for Real Estate Research, said she had become increasingly worried about her former boyfriend in recent weeks.

"She said it's a psycho from her past," Nguyen said.

"The close circle that surrounds her knew about this guy," said graduate student Adrianna Johnson. "We had a picture of him and we have judicial paperwork to serve him in case he appeared at the office, which means we were prepared to put him away in many ways, but we never expected something like this would happen.

KING

When Rebecca Griego applied for a restraning order against Jonathan Rowan, she wrote she "was wrong" to forgive him for the January incident.

Court records show Griego was granted a temporary restraining order on March 6, saying Rowan had threatened her, her sister and their dogs.

In applying for the order, she wrote that on January 5, Rowan "verbally abused me and then started throwing candlestick glass holders at me and then tackled me to the floor and punched me.  I forgave him because he was drunk but now I see that was wrong and he has threatened to hurt me again."

Griego wrote that in February, Rowan called her and threatened suicide, "because he couldn't see me. I never called him back."

The order required Rowan to stay 500 feet from Griego, her residence, workplace and dog.

University spokesman Bob Roseth said Griego had received phone threats at least twice at work.

Police say protection paperwork is rarely a deterrent for those set on creating chaos in another person's life. "We can immediately arrest someone if they have a restraining order and they make their contact," said Wittmier. "But that doesn't provide physical protection of any sort."

KING

People gather outside Gould Hall after the shooting.

Some students who were in the building at the time thought the half-dozen shots were noise from construction at a wood shop and didn't realize anything was wrong until police showed up with guns drawn and told them to get out. Those who didn't leave locked themselves inside rooms in Gould Hall.

"We were in a classroom down the hall, and we heard four loud sounds," said Marty, a part-time instructor. "We had the doors to the classroom closed, and we just stayed there."

For several hours, students and staff milled around outside police barriers, and later were allowed back inside in small groups to retrieve belongings.

Gould Hall, built in 1972, is in an urban neighborhood on the edge of the campus. The hall was closed for the day, but was expected to reopen Tuesday, university spokesman Bob Roseth said.

In June 2000, a UW resident physician killed himself after fatally shooting his supervisor in the medical school complex, a few blocks away from Gould Hall. Police said Dr. Jian Chen gunned down his supervisor, Dr. Rodger Haggitt, in Haggitt's office after Chen was told his residency contract would not be renewed.