On this anniversary, our community takes another step toward healing with the commemoration of a memorial not far from the site of the terrible events of Aug. 4, 2019.
According to the National Mass Violence Center, the community itself is a “co-victim” of violence. “Honoring and rebuilding that sense of community is vital to recovery,” the Center recommends.
It is evident in every step of the design process that rebuilding community was a core part of the “Seed of Life” team mission. The team, consisting of Terry Welker, Jes McMillan, Sierra Leone and James Pate, were chosen by the 8/4 Memorial Committee last November to create the memorial. More than 40 sessions involving more than 5,000 volunteers from across the Dayton region took place in the creation of the mosaic component alone.
“We asked the community to please come and put a piece in this mosaic as a means of trauma release and letting go of grief,” McMillan said.
“Sankofa,” an African word derived from the Akan tribe in Ghana and used in the memorial’s design, stresses the importance of the past as a guide for the future. It is symbolized by a bird whose feet are planted forward while its head is turned backward — to retrieve something important that we may have forgotten.
“Sankofa is placed in connection to justice and in connection to the victims,” Leone said. “The seed is the victim. How do we operationalize what happened to the victims? We give them justice. And the outcome the community can live with is sankofa — reach back and remember. Whenever you see sankofa, your assignment is to remember, to reach back to something beyond yourself.”
What has our community learned from its tragic past that could help prevent such loss of life in the future? With every mass shooting being unique, so many variables to consider and state and federal legislation circumscribing local legislative action, it is difficult to prescribe meaningful reform.
Bystander fatigue
An FBI investigation into the case revealed “the attacker fantasized about mass shootings, serial killings, and murder-suicide for at least a decade without sharing specific details with friends or family.”
“This underscores the importance of bystanders’ attentiveness to more subtle changes an individual may exhibit that could be indicative of their decision to commit violence, such as a change in personal circumstances, an increase in perceived stressors, or language indicating they may be contemplating suicide,” the FBI said.
The FBI said that interviews with the attackers’ friends suggest that “bystander fatigue” may have been a factor in why he was not reported to law enforcement. According to the FBI, bystander fatigue is when a person’s concerning behaviors are not reported to authorities by people close to them due to prolonged exposure to the person’s erratic or troubling behavior.
Even had the attacker been reported, our recent investigation found that efforts by local police to “pink slip” someone in a mental health crisis due to the person being a danger to themselves or others rarely result in the person being involuntarily committed.
On May 5 of this year, 57-year-old Michael Bagley was arrested and later charged with inducing panic after a reported disturbance led to a standoff that lasted hours and involved a heavy police presence in West Carrollton.
Karen Korn, a neighbor, said Bagley exhibited mental health problems for years, but he had become increasingly erratic and aggressive while also refusing help. For three years, the police and neighbors were trying to figure out what to do, she said.
“The law makes it so that nobody can do anything for him to help him,” Korn said in May. “This is a tragedy because we need a different system. We just need something different so that this isn’t what it comes to.”
Gun violence
Bystander fatigue, combined with the prevalence of gun violence, makes it even more difficult for communities to identify and intervene after early signs of troubling behavior. According to a 2023 report from Everytown America, America’s gun death rate is 13 times higher than that of other high-income countries, with more than 44,000 Americans killed and nearly 97,000 more shot and wounded every year.
Participants in the report’s focus groups described feeling “numb” to gun violence.
“As a result, some people may ignore or avoid talking about gun violence in their area, which leads to fewer chances for solidarity to create safer communities and fewer outlets to rebuild trust,” according to the report.
Dayton has already seen its share of gun violence this year. Mayor Jeffrey Mims Jr., Lt. Col. Eric Henderson and Deputy City Manager Joe Parlette spoke at a press conference earlier this summer to condemn an outbreak of shootings. The mayor said the city intends to develop and implement a community violence prevention pilot program.
Commissioner Shenise Turner-Sloss said city leaders have looked to Violence Reduction Initiatives based on the Cure Violence model, which she said has been effective in other major cities.
“Dayton is facing a problem of increased violence this summer, especially involving firearms,” she said in a post on X. “The state government greatly limits the actions cities can take, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still solutions to try.”
‘Fundamentally problematic’
Common-sense gun reforms, including red-flag laws and banning certain accessories that allow gun owners to skirt automatic weapon laws, could help prevent future catastrophes and are widely popular with voters. According to Pew Research, 58% of Americans favor stricter gun laws. But there are significant roadblocks to any proposed legislative reform. Ohio state law, for example, preempts cities from passing local gun measures.
The idea that “good guys with guns” will deter a mass shooter was challenged by the Aug. 4 shooting. Six armed Dayton police officers in the Oregon District managed to stop the shooter within 32 seconds, but not before he fired 41 shots. Despite their incredible heroism and training, the firepower used in the attack was overwhelming.
The attacker on Aug. 4 used a brace and a 100-round double drum magazine to convert his AR pattern pistol into a more lethal weapon.
“It is fundamentally problematic,” Dayton’s Police Chief at the time, Richard Biehl, said when asked about 100-round magazines. “To have that level of weaponry in a civilian environment unregulated is problematic.”
Rather than clamping down on access to that level of weaponry, there are many examples where efforts to limit access have been overturned or reversed.
On June 14 of this year, for example, the Supreme Court affirmed the Fifth Circuit’s decision on bump-stock devices, reasoning the accessory does not meet the statutory definition of a “machinegun,” reversing an effort by the Trump administration to reduce access to such modifications.
Red flag laws
In March, The Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health launched the National ERPO Resource Center designed to support the implementation of Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO), or “red flag,” laws across the United States that permit authorities to confiscate firearms from people thought to pose a danger. ERPOs are overwhelmingly popular with majorities of both Democrats (89.7%) and Republicans (68.5%). Despite this, in April, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and 18 other state attorneys general opposed this new federal program.
“Do something” was the deafening refrain from the crowd that assembled the day after the Aug. 4 shooting. Five years later, it proves challenging to identify any meaningful “something” done by elected officials to prevent future violence.
Last November, another active shooter injured four before killing himself in a Beavercreek Walmart. The 20-year-old man was twice intervened by police for expressing suicidal ideations – once specifically involving a gun – and went on to successfully purchase a firearm days before his attack. After the mass shooting, Gov. DeWine reiterated his support for gun safety proposals.
But DeWine’s pleas to the General Assembly for reform, like those from members of the Democratic minority and the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, have fallen on deaf ears.
Do something
Indeed, a discerning reader could be forgiven for thinking less than nothing has been done by elected officials to curb future violence. With the rabid opposition to any and all gun control, it is arguably easier today for another mass shooter to acquire and use a weapon intended for the battlefield against civilian targets. Coupled with the documented failings of our existing pink slip system designed to intervene when an individual is experiencing a mental health crisis, our region is no better equipped today to prevent another mass shooting than it was in 2019.
In fact, it is more likely to happen. According to the FBI, the number of active shooter incidents in the country has increased a staggering 60% since 2019. This is an abject failure on the part of our state and national officials.
With the Seed of Life memorial, our community now has a beautiful physical space in which we can pay respects and reflect on the lives lost and forever changed. Its designing artists and the thousands of volunteers who put in the blood, sweat and tears needed to undertake that task throws into stark relief the complete inaction by our elected representatives.
If the lessons of the past go unheeded, the “sankofa” image of a bird with feet facing forward and head turned back would be less fitting than one of a bird with its head firmly buried in the sand. Five years on, we ask again: Do something.
HOW TO GO
WHAT: Seed of Life Memorial unveiling
WHEN: 3 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 4
WHERE: Oregon District
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