VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Families of the Virginia Beach mass shooting victims are now represented by former Democratic Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax.
On May 31, 2019, a Virginia Beach city employee opened fire in Municipal Center Building 2. He shot and killed a total of 12 people; several others were hurt.
According to Fairfax on Wednesday, he’s representing the families of Kate Nixon, Michelle “Missy” Langer, Joshua Hardy, and Laquita Brown.
"Many of them have felt demoralized. They have felt like their government and others have turned their backs on them," Fairfax said.
Fairfax also told 13News Now he wants the families' cries heard on the local and state level.
"My interest in this case is getting justice for these families, broadly, and for all of these families. And then this issue around the laptop then arose, and it really was shocking," he added.
Virginia Beach police maintained, via a statement issued Tuesday, their SWAT officers and detectives never knew about or found a laptop belonging to the mass shooting suspect, after the initial sweep of his home on May 31, 2019.
Earlier this week, Del. Kelly Convirs-Fowler (D-Virginia District 21) publicly announced possession of a laptop she claims belonged to the gunman.
"It appears to be something that could be relevant," Fowler told 13News Now on Monday.
Fowler said a deed transferred ownership of the gunman's condo to the estate of one of the shooting victims.
While cleaning it out to sell on the market, the shooting victim's sister and a former city employee supposedly found a hard drive, disks and a laptop.
The former city employee, who in an e-mail said she can't trust city officials, decided to give the electronics to Fowler.
Now, Fairfax wants the laptop returned to his client.
"It's lawfully owned by one of my clients, but most importantly again, it's a symbol of the fact the full truth has not been publicly revealed in this matter," he said.
Fairfax said, what they do have right now, is a copy of the laptop's hard drive. They are trying to get it "analyzed and preserved."
In a statement released Thursday, Fowler said she had turned the laptop over to her attorney, and that her goal is to transfer it to the Department of Justice.
"A missed piece of evidence, like a laptop, doesn't need to go to the Investigative Authority that missed the piece of evidence to begin with or a private attorney that has a potential financial interest in the laptop," the delegate said in her statement. "This missed evidence needs to go to a higher investigative authority, so I ask the DOJ to take the laptop."
Fowler said multiple survivors of the shooting, family members of the victims, and city employees have asked that she ensure the laptop is given to a "higher authority".
Meanwhile, Fairfax said that all options, legal or otherwise, are being explored when it comes to retrieving the laptop in question and supporting the surviving family members.
Below is Fairfax's formal statement, regarding his representation of four of the shooting victims' families:
Justin E. Fairfax, Attorney and the 41st Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, is now representing four of the Virginia Beach families whose loved ones were murdered in the horrific mass shooting in the Virginia Beach Municipal Center on May 31, 2019.
Not one of the families impacted by the 2019 massacre in Virginia Beach has been made whole from the unfathomable and unacceptable injustice and emotional, financial and spiritual toll that they continue to suffer to this day.
The Law Office of Justin E. Fairfax, PLLC and Martin Law PLLC, with Attorney Thomas B. Martin, now legally represent the families of:
— Kate Nixon
— Michelle “Missy” Langer
— Joshua O. Hardy
— Laquita C. Brown