VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Several family members of the 2019 Virginia Beach mass shooting victims say they are done waiting for answers from city leaders. They stood united outside of the municipal center's Building 2 on Tuesday morning, alongside former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax.
Together, they are publicly calling for justice.
Fairfax said they are speaking for all victims’ families, but he says he’s legally retained to now represent five families. They are the families of Mary Louise Gayle, Laquita Brown, Joshua Hardy, Kate Nixon, and Missy Langer.
Fairfax stood with several of the families and said he wants the injustice to end today and that it was time for a new day of truth and transparency.
Fairfax added he wants to get answers for the families and support for them like mental health resources and insurance resources.
Matthew Gayle said he wants justice for his mother Mary Louise Gayle and everyone impacted by the shooting.
"In the years since her untimely death and preventable death, her 24 years of service has not offered her grieving and distraught family any answers of accountability," Gayle said. "Instead, we’ve been met with manipulation and lies."
Fairfax said the families are traveling with him to Richmond on Wednesday to meet with current Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears and they hope to meet with Gov. Glenn Youngkin as well.
On Tuesday afternoon, the City of Virginia Beach responded to the press conference by issuing a statement, saying in part, "the City has willingly supported our employees and the victims’ families since that day," citing compensation benefits to surviving victims and families of victims, as well as establishing the VB Strong Center "to offer services into 2023 to empower and uplift those affected by May 31 in their journeys to healing and resiliency."
The statement also said, "The City shares the families’ desire to obtain a full forensic evaluation of the recently discovered laptop that allegedly belongs to the shooter. We look forward to prompt submission of this laptop to a law enforcement agency for evaluation. We share the families’ hopes that it will shed further light on May 31, 2019."
In response to the city's statement, Virginia Beach Families 5/31 United said the following:
"Today's statement by the City of Virginia Beach is shameful and profoundly disappointing, especially to the families of the 12 extraordinary people who were murdered while serving the City in Government Building 2 on May 31, 2019. Today, we called for elevation and instead continue to get more evasion.
In a particularly shocking and callous statement, The City celebrates the fact that it -- through standard workers compensation - gave a grand total of $1.5 million to 11 families leaving out a 12th deceased victim -- who lost loved ones (at an average of only $136,000 per family), when The City has already spent well over $26 million to renovate the very building in which 12 people were murdered. Does The City of Virginia Beach care more about brick-and-mortar buildings or about actual human lives?
We know that 8.5 million Virginians care more about actual human lives than buildings. And, the "Virginia Beach 5/31 Families United" believe that our state elected leaders - including our Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General and leaders in the General Assembly with whom we hope to meet tomorrow in Richmond - also care more about actual human lives than buildings.
We hope that The City of Virginia Beach will elevate right now and finally prove and demonstrate -- with the eyes of the world watching -- that it does as well."