Oregon District Shooting: 8-4 Memorial Committee has found location for permanent marker

DAYTON — The committee in charge of choosing a memorial to commemorate the 2019 Oregon District Shooting has been careful to consider the families of those who were slain that night.

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The 8-4 Memorial Committee now says it looks as though they have found the right location.

“We just don’t want to rush it,” Sandy Gudorf, committee co-chairwoman, told News Center 7 Reporter Mike Campbell on Friday.

Committee members have decided that the permanent memorial will be installed in a plaza on East Fifth Street, not far from Wayne Avenue, next to the Trolley Stop.

The committee is nearing the end of its selection process and has narrowed the choices to designs submitted by five finalists. The final one will be chosen in the next two months.

“The victim’s families and survivors had to be ready to talk about this so that took time,” Gudorf said. “COVID got in the middle of things.” Gudorf said the winning design has to be visually pleasing, fit in the space and be durable.

“We will have technical people looking at it to make sure for instance that it can withstand our winters,” she said.

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Any remembrance of the mass shooting would not be complete without recognizing the six Dayton police officers who put down the shooter less than 30 seconds after he opened fire that night.

“Just like anyone, I remember that day, I’ll never forget that day for the rest of my life, Dayton police Deputy Chief Eric Henderson said.

Henderson said his officers are affected deeply by these yearly remembrances.

“I say there is no way that you don’t feel something on this day and that’s for all community members even,” he said.

Henderson said what the officers did that night was important, but the focus needs to be placed on the nine people killed and the many people who were wounded in the spray of the gunman’s bullets.

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