VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — “A toxic environment,” is how current and former Virginia Beach employees describe working for the city. One employee even said it came as no surprise that a mass shooting took place.
“Virginia Beach has a work environment problem,” said one man.
“Unfair hiring practices, unfair promotions,” said another.
These men say mass shooting victim Keith Cox spoke about the discrimination taking place at the municipal center and how city leaders continuously ignored the problem.
“Mr. Keith Cox was the son of my pastor, and Keith had been talking to the ministers’ conference for three years about unfair treatment at his job.”
It’s this kind of feedback that Hillard Heintze is looking for from the public to better understand what may have led an employee to shoot and kill 12 people at Building 2 back on May 31.
“When tragedies like this happen... people know the co-workers, they know people who work in the room, they may have pieces of information, they may have things they want to pass along,” said Kenneth Bouche, with Hillard Heintze.
Members of the community said it’s important that the independent investigation also reveal if the city could have done more and if anything needs to change so this doesn’t happen again.
“An event, shooting of this nature, shakes you up, and it does something to all of us,” said Rabbi Israel Zoberman.
A psychiatrist who has been working with victims of the tragedy said getting all the facts is paramount when it comes to finding some sort of closure.
“Part of being able to put things behind one’s self and go on is when there is some sense of understanding, some sense of mastery, the more unknowns the more difficult it is to move on,” said Ben Carey.
Hillard Heintze said their goal over the next 12 weeks is to be completely transparent with the public.
It’s a four-step approach: understand, learn, prepare and prevent.
“We want to build a relationship so there is communication, and the trust will come when they see the final report, they will see the accuracy and the efforts behind it,” said Bouche.