Virginia legislators to consider proposed $10M fund for victims of mass attacks, shootings

RICHMOND, Va. (WAVY) — The Virginia General Assembly will soon consider whether to establish a new victims’ fund for mass shootings and other mass attacks.  

If approved, Virginia would create a $10 million Mass Violence Care Fund that could pay un-reimbursed medical expenses beginning the third year after a tragedy. 

Payments for victims expire two years after the mass attack. May 31, 2022 marks three years after Virginia Beach’s most horrific event in the city’s history.

Joe Samaha’s daughter Reema was killed in the Virginia Tech tragedy, and he helped set up a similar fund for those families.

“Virginia Beach families have been in their own war. That was a war, and they understand what PTSD is… What happens to my body? What happens to my brain 10 years from now, not just today, not just tomorrow?” he said.

On Tuesday, he spoke with state Attorney General Jason Miyares, local members of the House of Delegates, a city employee who was in Building 2 of the Virginia Beach Municipal Center during the mass shooting, and a spouse of a worker killed, 

“The Virginia Beach delegation that was present today [is] starting to understand the needs of families and victims of mass shootings and mass violence. Their financial needs in the long-term that they never considered. They figure people will go home they will be OK. They will get over it. They won’t it is a lifetime journey” he said.

“I think there is some frustration that I’ve talked to survivors who have this awful feeling that they’ve been left on the side of the road,” Miyares added.

They listened to Ned Carlstrom, who was in Building 2 as the mass shooting unfolded. He wasn’t shot or injured, but he says he has hidden injuries — like PTSD — from that dreadful day in 2019.

“To think what it is like to wrap your hands around to have to step over a dead co-worker to see a bullet hole in the top of their head,” he said. “They said ‘You have to exhaust your options,’ the red tape that this is, and you have to give your first-born child … [to get something done].” Carlstrom said, referring to the difficulty getting support after the tragedy.

Samaha then appeared before the commission investigating the Virginia Beach mass shooting, asking them to voice support for the Mass Violence Care Fund.

“I acknowledge or recommend that this is an idea that the Commonwealth might want to look at, not only for Virginia Beach families and survivors, but for other mass violence victims in the Commonwealth,” he said.

The vote supporting the care fund was unanimous Tuesday.

Budget discussions begin next week on the proposed $10 million fund creation.