“We don’t get time to rest. It constantly happens,” Green said of mass shootings. “Very heartbreaking.”
Every time, it rips open the emotional wound from the Aug. 4, 2019, deadly shooting in Dayton that killed nine people, including his father, 57-year-old Derrick Fudge.
Green plans to leave Saturday for Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman, also 18, barricaded himself in a fourth-grade classroom and fired an AR-style rifle in the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults in December 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
In memory of his father, Green started the FUDGE Foundation — www.fudgefoundation.org. He relies on donations to travel to suffering communities to support those dealing with trauma.
As a survivor, victim and father, Green said he understands all too well that it could be his child. He said the parents in the aftermath will experience shock and denial, but the real battle kicks in after the rest of the country goes back to normal.
The Texas families may become like those in Buffalo, where Green said he will return over the summer to continue providing support.
“They’re part of my family now,” he said.
Green also advocates what he described as better gun control laws and common-sense background checks, and he encourages people to vote so their voice is heard.
“We need to get rid of these assault rifles. They are causing too much damage in too short a time,” he said.
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
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