NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – Old Dominion University broke ground Friday on the Monarch Memorial in honor of the victims of the Virginia Beach mass shooting on May 31, 2019.
Although it is in a different city, a permanent memorial for the victims of the Virginia Beach mass shooting will be built at the Bugg Plaza, between the Batten Arts and Letters Building and Perry Library.
The ODU Alumni Association dedicated the memorial during the school’s homecoming weekend.
“In our way it was our opportunity to try to share with the families, not only our willingness to stand with them but also in someway a form of inspiration to let them know that people across the region all care,” said ODU President John Broderick.
According to Broderick, six of the people killed had connections to the university.
- Tara Welch Gallagher, BS in Civil Engineering 2002, Master of Engineering 2003
- Alexander Gusev, BS in Business Administration, 2010
- Richard H. Nettleton, BS in Business Administration, 1994
- Christopher Kelly Rapp, BS in Civil Engineering, 1994, and son of a retired ODU administrator
- Ryan Keith Cox, former student
- Mary Lou Gayle, former student
“This Virginia Beach tragedy had so many ties to Old Dominion, not only with our alumni and former students, but I mean, candidly almost everyone of those people who lost their lives had a neighbor, a relative, who was on the campus,” said Broderick.
11 city of Virginia Beach employees and a contractor were killed in the May 31st shooting at a building on the city’s Municipal Center complex.
The memorial will be unveiled in the spring.
