Memorial service unites UNLV students and faculty a year after fatal shooting on campus

Katie Futterman, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Dec 6, 2024

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LAS VEGAS — One year after a shooter unleashed horror on their campus, members of the UNLV community said they stand stronger than ever.

“We don’t erase the past. Instead, we honor it by stepping into the future with courage and purpose,” Professor Daraboth “Bot” Rith, who was shot 10 times on Dec. 6, 2023 said at a memorial event on Friday morning.

Three other professors: Patricia Navarro-Velez, 39, Jerry Cha-Jan Chang, 64, and Naoko Takemaru, 69 were killed by by Anthony Polito, 67, on that day. After a year of suffering from their losses, the university was joined by community members on Friday to remember the professors’ lives and focus on healing together.

“As a commuter school, UNLV didn’t feel very ‘come together’ until this unifying event. I feel a lot more into community and school spirit. I really appreciated it to come together like this,” Jeyan Lacson, a student in her fourth year at UNLV, said after the ceremony.

She and her friend Sandra Lu still remember hunkering down and hiding out in an office for hours during last year’s shooting. All the while, members of their project in Germany stayed on the phone with them until 2 a.m. Central European Time to ensure they got home safe.

‘Grief is unique to each person’

Emotions were mixed at the ceremony — with some sitting in a corner in tears and others embracing in smiles.

“Grief is unique to each person,” Tod Fitzpatrick, the associate dean of fine arts who officiated the ceremony, told the crowd, reminding them that healing was not a linear process.

He urged people to do whatever was right for them. Some may need to leave the ceremony, others may need to be there.

“I know your thoughts are heavy, I know your thoughts are dark. But I hope that this ceremony gives you closure,” Chris Spotted Eagle, the vice president of the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe and Spiritual Leader, said as he gave a Nuwu blessing to the community.

President Keith Whitfield said that in order to honor the positivity of the professors’ legacies, it was important to reaffirm UNLV as a place that valued mental health, inclusivity and compassion for one another.

“By creating an environment such as this, we can ensure that their spirit lives on through our dedication to providing a safe and nurturing space for everyone,” Whitfield said.

Remembering through art

In addition to speakers, the ceremony included poetry, singing and visual art.

Director of Creative Writing Programs Claudia Keelan read a poem she wrote, titled “Our Names Go With Them.”

“What we do when we lose someone is go on,” she told the crowd before reading her poem.

After the speech, people strolled through Beam Hall, the site of the fatal shooting, where new murals lined the entrance and paper cranes spelled out UNLV.

The crane project emerged from a chat on discord, according to Christopher Kyle Aguilar, one of the organizers. It was at first meant to honor Takemaru through a Japanese tradition of folding 1,000 origami cranes. The project grew to create 4,000 cranes to honor the professors who were shot.

“It took a lot of work together as a community,” he said. “It’s a bunch of strangers who took their talents together and made something to scale.”

Aguilar added that it was especially difficult for him given his lack of artistic talent. At first, his were very crumply.

“The cranes are not perfect, and I think that’s also beautiful in itself,” Aguilar said. “It shows that a lot of us, despite not knowing how to make these cranes, took the effort to go out and make something to tribute to these professors.”

Long after the event came to an end, people remained, talking, eating and even making their own cranes and writing postcards.

“There’s kind of a shared feeling of, we all want each other to be safe, and today is kind of a reminder that we’re all in this together,” Celina Johnson, a sophomore at UNLV, said. “It’s really sweet to be with ones you love today.”

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