One of the people who was in the building during the Virginia Beach mass shooting appears in a new gun-control-themed ad for a Democratic state Senate candidate trying to unseat the incumbent Republican who represents part of Virginia Beach.
The woman, Karen Havekost, recounts her experience during the May 31 mass shooting in Democrat Missy Cotter Smasal’s latest television ad. Havekost then criticizes Sen. Bill DeSteph, R-Virginia Beach, for voting to postpone a General Assembly special session rather than consider any gun legislation before the election.
Cotter Smasal and the gun control organization Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund paid $100,000 apiece to produce and air the ad.
The candidates are competing in a long Republican-leaning district that has trended toward Democrats since 2017. The district — which is being heavily targeted by Everytown — voted for Republican Donald Trump in 2016 and Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam in 2017.
The ad went live Monday on broadcast and cable in Hampton Roads and will run for two weeks.
In the video, Havekost, who recently retired from working for the city of Virginia Beach, describes walking out of the bathroom inside Building 2 and seeing the gunman at the end of the hallway and a coworker between them.
“He looked at me and he yelled, ‘Go,'” she recalls the coworker saying. “So I was lucky, but not everyone was.”
Havekost, who wasn’t injured, says in the ad she asked DeSteph to “do something” following the mass shooting, but he did not meet with her. The video pans to a photo of DeSteph and a black background that says “Senator Bill DeSteph Blocked Senate From Voting on Gun Safety.”
DeSteph said his office invited Havekost to schedule a meeting with him after she asked him to support the special session. He said she never requested a meeting, but he’s happy to meet with her.
He and other Republicans, using their thin majority, voted to adjourn the special session Northam called to address gun safety after 90 minutes of meetings in July, with no legislation passed.
DeSteph — a former Virginia Beach council member who was elected to the state senate in 2015 after serving one term as delegate — filed 27 pieces of legislation, including resolutions to celebrate the lives of the 12 victims and commend the law enforcement agencies that responded to the mass shooting.
He also asked for millions of dollars in grants and loans to fund the renovation of Building 2 where the shooting occurred. Before the Senate Finance Committee had a chance to consider that legislation, the Virginia Beach City Council voted in July to allocate $4 million for the design of this project as well as the current City Hall and police headquarters. And in August, the council voted to spend $800,000 to begin gutting the interior of the building.
DeSteph also filed bills to increase mandatory minimum sentences for certain gun-related crimes. Most of the gun-related bills were referred to the Virginia State Crime Commission for review.
“He has a chance to make a difference, but he refuses to do it,” Havekost says at the end of the ad.
Cotter Smasal appears only in the beginning, in a black and white photo sitting next to Havekost, to say she sponsored the ad.
The first-time candidate said Monday she spoke with Havekost the day after the shooting. Cotter Smasal recalled Havekost telling her she escaped Building 2 through a back door or window and hid in the bushes.
Cotter Smasal said it was Havekost’s idea to publicly share her story through her campaign.
“I know she went through a really tough time, and I’m just amazed at her bravery and courage in talking about this,” Cotter Smasal said.
The two recently attended a private gun violence prevention roundtable with former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, herself a survivor of a mass shooting and the founder of the group Giffords Courage to Fight Gun Violence.
Everytown also donated $5,000 to Cotter Smasal’s campaign and is spending $2.5 million overall on pro-gun-control candidates in Virginia.
Smasal said she’s planning more television ads before Election Day.
In an August radio interview with John Fredericks, DeSteph said he thought the underlying problem of mass shootings was mental health.
“We’ve got to figure out what’s the commonality, what’s the switch, what’s the catalyst that takes an otherwise sane or stable individual and puts him in an unstable position where they want to go out and kill anybody,” he said.
In that radio interview, he defended the GOP’s decision to send the gun bills from the special session to the crime commission, saying they needed to take the time to study the issue and not have any “knee jerk reactions” to address gun violence.
DeSteph said Monday that his special session bills were meant to address mass shootings, keep guns out of the hands of criminals and still protect the rights of law-abiding citizens. He said he wasn’t thinking about politics during the Virginia Beach shooting.
“Instead of engaging in an honest debate about our policy differences on the 2nd Amendment, my opponent today sought to capitalize on the unspeakable tragedy that befell our community earlier this year,” he said in a text message. “(Cotter Smasal) has a lot to learn about our community if she thinks that voters will be fooled by her attempts to gain a political advantage from this tragedy.”
Marie Albiges, 757-247-4962, malbiges@dailypress.com
