The country is still mourning the Virginia Beach shooting, which left 12 people dead. One of the victims, Ryan Keith Cox, is being praised as a hero and guardian angel.
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Cox was an account clerk who worked in the public utilities department for over 12 years. Christi Dewar, a survivor of the shooting says she may not be alive if it wasn’t for Cox. She told WTKR, “If it wasn’t for him, there would have been several more people that had perished.”
As Dewar was running from the shooting, Cox ordered her and six others to get inside a colleague’s office and barricade the space. “‘I said ‘Come on Keith’ and he said ‘I gotta check on everybody else,'” Dewar explained.
“We closed and locked the door and we pushed the cabinet up against the door,” she said.
The shooter tried to enter the office and then fired four shots. Dewar said, “I looked out and two of the shots had almost come through the cabinet, the back of the cabinet.” Cox never returned and was killed. Watch the email news clips below:
The shooting took place on the afternoon of Friday, May 31. The alleged shooter is DeWayne Craddock , 40, who worked in the municipal building. As of now, his motivate is not clear. The Washington Post reports there was one person he didn’t shoot because they were “casual acquaintances.” There were also other reports he looked people in the eye and did not shoot.
Initial reports on Friday pointed to a disgruntled employee who had recently been fired and returned to his former workplace to get revenge. However, officials have not announced what they believe was Craddock’s motive. We know he killed one of his former supervisors, Richard H. Nettleton
Craddock was described as a longtime city worker employed as an engineer with the Department of Public Utilities at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center for about 15 years. “Victims were found on three floors of Building 2 and one victim was found shot in a car outside,” CBS News reported. Building 2 is where the Department of Public Utilities is located.
The Virginia Beach city manager told the New York Times that Craddock was technically still employed when he started shooting and that he “had a security pass like all employees had and he was authorized to enter the building.”
Our condolences go out to everyone affected by this shooting.
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