VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Matt Berg had just come home from the beach on May 31, 2019 and had planned to spend the rest of the afternoon with his family.
But by 4:30 p.m., and until the wee hours of the next morning, he was inside Building 30 at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center, the home of the city’s Emergency Communications Center.
Once he heard there was a mass shooting at Building 2, he knew he had to go help his colleagues.
“I know that it’s not protocol. but that that’s just the type of people that we are,” Berg said. “Everyone that was physically able to answer a phone was answering the phone, and the entire room was packed.”
The rest of the day was akin to a blur, Berg said.
Ultimately, 12 people were killed and four others were seriously hurt by a public utilities engineer who was killed himself in a gun battle with police.
A police officer was also hit by one of the bullets. He was saved by his bulletproof vest.
For much of the night, Berg took on the responsibility to make sure those dispatchers who answered the initial 911 calls were cared for.
“You know, anytime you handle a traumatic call, it definitely affects you,” Berg said. “But obviously, something on the scale of 5/31 is definitely a little bit different.”
He still checks in on them from time to time.
However, the person who crosses his mind more than anyone else is Ryan Keith Cox.
Cox, 50, was an account clerk in the city who sacrificed his life to warn others of the active shooting. The post office near the municipal center has since been named in his honor.
“I often think of Keith,” Berg said. “I think of his sacrifice and his courage and his service and his willingness to do something that he didn’t have to do in that moment. He could have just stepped into the room and been safe, and instead he chose to turn around and he chose to help. So I think that people like him exemplify what it means to be a city employee, what it means to work for the city. That’s the type of person that I try to be every day.”