In this Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015, photo, the Inland Regional Center’s associate executive director, Kevin Urtz, left, listens to the center’s executive director Lavinia Johnson during an interview with The Associated Press on the campus of the regional center where the attack on Dec. 2 took place in San Bernardino, Calif. The staff was still gearing up for the holidays on Dec. 2, the day 14 people were massacred on the center’s gleaming campus.
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“I don’t think we’re ever going to just, you know”, he said, with his voice trailing off. “No, it’s too big”.
Donaciano Meza, a program manager, said he and many others would be thinking of the victims of the shooting on their return, including Larry Daniel Kaufman, 42, who ran the coffee shop at IRC and was killed in the shooting.
The AP reported that the campus has been fenced in while authorities have investigated the shooting. Within that perimeter, in one corner, is a second fence. Farook, who worked for the Department of Public Health, attended a holiday luncheon there on December 2 before leaving, returning with his wife, and opening fire.
The conference building is the only part of the campus that will not reopen Monday.
County offices were closed at noon to allow as many employees as possible to attend.
Rudy Giuliani was invited to speak to the gathering because of the former NY mayor’s experience guiding his city back from the previous horror of 9/11.
“You invite people to come here, come to San Bernardino, come here, spend money here”.
Inside the darkened arena, choirs sang “Lean on Me” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, and Supervisor Josie Gonzales led the audience in a call-and-response poem titled “We Remember Them”.
“They work in teams, and as you can imagine, they’re all looking forward to getting back together with their team”, she said. Those people didn’t die for nothing.
Warren urged the employees not to bottle up their grief or become bitter and to accept help from others when they need it. “It is the way we get through the transitions of life”, Warren said. They yearn to renew a sense of stability at an institution unmoored by violence.
“The message that we should unite and stay strong and look for the good, to counteract the bad, hit home with all of us”, said Laurie Hunter, a San Bernardino County employee. “We want to ensure that our staff feels safe and secure as they work in their offices”.
A welcome and food were planned for returning employees.
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The center’s executive director says Monday’s reunion will be welcomed by the staff as a return to the camaraderie of working together.
