Victims of 2019 Oregon District district shooting honored with memorial unveiled on Sunday

James, who is raising her daughter’s two children, told the assembled crowd that “it takes a lot to live again in the present and not dwell on the past.”

“This memorial site is a critical piece that will open up the door to healing for many,” James said. “It will unite people and promote the collective healing of our community that we desperately need.”

The memorial was unveiled on the fifth anniversary of the shooting that killed nine people and injured more than two dozen others.

“Today we are here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those who were changed forever,” said 8/4 Memorial Steering Committee Co-chair Sandy Hunt, who was is former director of the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s office victim/witness division.

Those killed in the shooting were Monica Brickhouse, 39; Nicholas Cumer, 25; Megan Betts, 22; Derrick Fudge, 57; Thomas McNichols, 25; Lois Oglesby, 27; Saeed Saleh, 38; Logan Turner, 30; and Beatrice Warren-Curtis, 36.

The shooter, Connor Betts, 24, of Bellbrook, was armed with a semi-automatic pistol that was modified with a brace and an attached drum magazine that could hold up to 100 .223-caliber rounds. He opened fire on the crowded Oregon District street before being shot to death by police.

“There are no words that can replace the lives that we lost five years ago,” said Montgomery County Commissioner Debbie Lieberman. “But now we have a place and the families have a place where people can come together and remember the nine people that were killed.”

“We hope for a day that nothing like this ever happens again anywhere. And we know how many times it has happened in the last five years,” she said. “So your voices are very important.”

The Seed of Life memorial is located at 530 E. Fifth Street in the Oregon District in the plaza next to the Trolley Stop. It features a metal sculpture, a mosaic which 5,000 volunteers helped create by placing the tiles, plantings, a bench, a poem and a plaque with the names of those who died.

The memorial was designed by a team of local artists selected through a national process managed by The Contemporary Dayton. The Seed of Life team that designed and created the memorial include team leader Terry Welker, an architect and sculptor; Sierra Leone, a poet and educator; Jes McMillan, an artist from the The Mosaic Institute of Greater Dayton; and James Pate, an artist and designer.

“Today as peacemakers and placemakers we are four artists plus 10,000 hands,” Welker said on Sunday. “This is your place for reaching back to find those important things that you may have forgotten. This is also your place for moving forward.”

The project was overseen by the 16-member 8/4 Memorial Steering Committee headed by co-chairs Sandy Gudorf and Hunt. Former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley formed the team and, with Chris Kershner, president and CEO of the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce, led the fund-raising effort, Gudorf said.

Dozens of community organizations and companies funded the memorial amid the community-wide effort to plan and create it.

“This community rallied behind this space and behind all of you,” Gudorf said.

The ceremony included speeches, a moment of silence, the release of nine white doves, and a bagpiper whose plaintive song closed out the event.

Those who attended were given bags of flower seeds to plant and pieces of tile used in the mosaic.

“This was a very beautiful example of what came out of such a tragic event,” said Regina Hankins, a retired victim advocate for the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s office who was among the crowd attending the event. “People talk about beauty coming out of ashes and I think that’s what we have here.”

The anniversary is also being marked at the International Peace Museum with an exhibit of photos and memories from the aftermath of shooting. The exhibit runs through September at the museum located at 10 N. Ludlow St. For information call 937-227-3223.

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