Navy Yard victims: the list will grow

They’ve identified the 12 people who were murdered in Monday’s Navy Yard shooting spree. The media are crawling all over the families and neighbors, trying to get their backstories. No one seems to be bothering much with the eight more who were wounded, but I suppose they’ll come around.

Thing is—there are dozens more victims than the 20 they’re talking about. Everyone in Building 197 who had to evacuate under gunfire is a victim. Everyone on base who was under lockdown for hours while law enforcement officers tracked down and eventually killed the alleged shooter is a victim.

Everyone who went into work that morning expecting that the worst part of their day would be the five meetings they had to attend is a victim.

Here’s what I’m thinking about: as the investigators release the building, and as janitors wash away the blood, people will be coming back to work.

Twelve desks will need to be cleared out; sorting out the office supplies, and decisions made about the personal items found there. Someone’s going to have to box that stuff up and make sure it gets to the families of the dead. That’s going to hurt.

I’m thinking about those 12 empty chairs in Building 197. People will walk past them on their way to the coffee machine or one of the four meetings scheduled for the day, and they’ll remember that their colleagues won’t be coming back to sit there. Ever. That’s going to hurt.

Emails sent to mailing lists will bounce. Someone will get an auto-reply in their queue stating that such-and-such an address is not valid. That’s going to hurt.

Project threads have been broken. Tasks that were in hand by the various victims will have to be reassigned. Someone will have to go through PCs and paper files to find documents, spreadsheets, project plans, meeting notes: all those vital pieces that were in-progress until progress was stopped forever by a bullet. Then someone will have to pick up those pieces and carry on with them. That’s going to hurt.

In a hundred ways, every day for months now—the victim list of the Navy Yard shooting will grow.

So, no—not just 12 victims; not even just 20.

Oh—and we can add the this one to the list of non-discriminatory mass shootings in our great nation.