One year after mass shooting, frustration in Ohio city
DAYTON, Ohio – Tormented by mind-scarring memories and questions without answers, Dion Green has dedicated his life after the death of his father and eight other people in a mass shooting in Dayton to memorializing them and trying to bring helpful change.
“That purpose is my ‘Why?’ ” said Green, whose father died in his arms after he was caught in the barrage of bullets in the city’s Oregon entertainment district in the early morning of Aug. 4, 2019. “I didn’t die, so that’s why I’m still here fighting.”
Seventeen other people were wounded in barely half a minute before police fatally shot the gunman in front of a bar where, had he gotten inside, the toll could have risen rapidly. The mass shooting brought an outpouring of community grieving and support, along with a “Dayton Strong” slogan.
There is frustration and disappointment as the first anniversary nears, much of it because of coronavirus-necessitated safety orders and restrictions against large public gatherings and latenight bar discussions.
“That’s what’s so tough about it,” Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said. “This is a bad mix for COVID-19, frankly. We want to hug each other and to be with each other, and we just cannot do it.”
The city plans activities people can share in at home. There will be a nineminute remembrance at 8:04 p.m. – representing Aug. 4 – as well as candle lighting and online programming.
Whaley said land has been donated for a permanent memorial, but authorities want to be deliberate about deciding what to put there.
There are small posters in many storefronts in the Oregon district offering a mental health program through a county board for a long list of issues, from anger to nightmares to withdrawal from others.
Social distancing for the pandemic hasn’t helped the situation, said city Fire Chief Jeff Lykins.
He and Police Chief Richard Biel said their departments’ members are recovering at different rates after a year that also included responding to damaging tornadoes, a deadly accident involving a stolen police cruiser that killed two 6year-old children, and the fatal shooting of a Dayton police detective.
Biehl said authorities are disappointed they’re still awaiting the findings of an FBI investigation into the influences and motivations of Connor Betts, the 24-year-old gunman whose sister, Megan, 22, was among those killed.