Almost four months after 16 people were shot by a city employee, police plan to reveal findings from the criminal investigation next week.
On Tuesday, the public will hear what police have determined happened on the day of the mass shooting, Mayor Bobby Dyer said. Police also will provide more details about the shooter and his work history, Dyer said.
The victims’ families will be allowed to go inside the building where the mass shooting took place.
Initially, the police chief had said he wouldn’t reveal the results of the investigation until after an independent review wraps up next month. But, Dyer said the victims have waited long enough and deserve some closure.
“The police have reached a point where significant information can now be brought forward,” Dyer said during a City Council meeting on Tuesday. “In fairness to the families going forward, the time has come to divulge some of the information.”
At the end of the workday on May 31, a city engineer opened fire inside of the office building where he worked for nine years at the Municipal Center. He killed 12 people, and severely injured four more. The assailant, 40, died after engaging in a shootout with police.
The former city manager deemed the shooters’ performance satisfactory, but the city has refused to release his personnel file. Jason Nixon, a shooting victims’ husband, has disputed that, saying his wife, Kate Nixon, had told him about performance and attitude issues the shooter showed. The gunman had resigned from his job the day he carried out the shooting.
The police briefing will be held in City Council chambers at 6 p.m. and will be streamed on the city’s website and Facebook page.
It will follow an update from Hillard Heintze, the firm that the council hired to conduct an outside review. The group has been developing its own timeline of events, and has reviewed the gunman’s employment history.
In August, a group of ministers said they were concerned that the independent investigators were not looking into complaints from workers that the city has a toxic work environment. To address those concerns, Hillard Heintze plans to send out an anonymous employee survey, said City Auditor Lyndon Remias, who is the employee the council picked to communicate with Hillard Heintze. A representative from the firm did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Alissa Skelton, 757-222-5155, alissa.skelton@pilotonline.com
