Virginia Beach mass shooting commission chief defends group amid criticism and resignations

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Katie King The Pilot from Virginia (Norfolk)

VIRGINIA BEACH Ryant Washington, chairman of a state commission to investigate the 2019 mass shooting in Virginia Beach, hit back at recent criticism of the panel at its monthly meeting on Wednesday.

If there’s any indication or implication that the individuals (on this commission) don’t care, I’d say it’s definitely a false narrative, he said at the meeting in Richmond. I think we’re all here because we care, because we want to do goodwill and I believe we will.

Washington said the panel was working diligently.

I can say we had meetings, we did due diligence, we had presentations, we had speakers, we had letters written, he said.

Washington’s remarks came after a Virginian-Pilot article on Sunday revealed that half of the commissions’ members, a total of 10, had resigned amid allegations by some that the commission was struggling with dysfunction. and low turnout.

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Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares then sent a scathing letter to the commission on Wednesday, expressing his disappointment with the group and imploring it to focus on the goal at hand.

During the meeting, it was announced that an 11th member had resigned.

Washington, who previously told The Pilot there were a range of reasons for the resignations, reiterated that point on Wednesday and said the whole message was not getting across (by the media).

He said some members quit because of family issues, work reasons or other personal issues unrelated to the commission.

The president also shared that Joe Samaha, a Virginia resident whose daughter died in a mass shooting, expressed interest in filling one of the vacancies.

Samaha is president of the VTV Family Outreach Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps survivors of mass shootings across the country. Her daughter was killed in the shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007.

The commission was formed following a May 31, 2019 mass shooting at the Virginia Beach Civic Center. A disgruntled city employee shot and killed 12 people and injured four others before being killed by police.

Ned Carlstrom, a former Virginia Beach city employee who survived the shooting, and Jason Nixon, whose wife was killed by the shooter, both spoke at the meeting.

Carlstrom said some other survivors told him they didn’t attend commission meetings because they thought the group wasn’t doing anything.

Remember, this is a real event that happened to real people, Carlstrom said.

Nixon sternly chastised the commission and questioned why it was not pushing for subpoena power or waiving fees for taping applications.

What’s the point of having an investigation if you can’t get information? He asked.

Nixon also urged the commission to be more transparent by filming its meetings and posting the footage online.

After the meeting, Washington told the newspaper that the issue of subpoena power was beyond his control. He said the General Assembly legislation creating the commission did not grant the entity that authority.

Commission member David Cariens told The Pilot last week that he believed some members did not want to be aggressive in the investigation and that he came close to resigning last summer due to his frustrations.

In an email obtained by The Pilot, Rebecca Cowan, one of the members who resigned in November, shared serious concerns about the commission with Miyares and Virginia Beach Del. Kelly Convirs-Fowler.

In the email, Cowan wrote that she feared the work of the commissions was being obstructed from within, either deliberately or through negligence.

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