8/2/2012 - West Side Leader
     

Copley Circle is the site of this memorial bench, installed by Hummel Funeral Home, that pays tribute to the seven people who died in the shooting Aug. 7, 2011.

Copley Boy Scout Brendan Ahern created a memorial garden at Copley Community Park for those killed in the Aug. 7, 2011, shooting.

Photos: Kathleen Folkerth

That day will be the first anniversary of the mass shooting that took the lives of five Copley residents and two visitors, one of whom was a Copley native.

Killed that day were Russ Johnson, 67; his wife, Gudrun Johnson, 64; their son, Bryan Johnson, 44; his daughter, Autumn Johnson, 16; Copley native Craig Dieter, 51; his son, Scott Dieter, 11; and Amelia Shambaugh, 16, who was Autumn’s friend.

Shooter Michael Hance, 51, who was killed by police, gunned down the seven around 11 a.m. Aug. 7 in the Goodenough Avenue/Schocalog Road area. Hance also shot and seriously wounded his girlfriend, Rebecca Dieter, whom he lived with in a home next to the Johnsons.

While the event, thought to be the biggest homicide in Summit County history, is a tragedy that many thought could never happen in the township, local spiritual leaders said it’s important to remember that day and mark the anniversary.

“It’s important to remember the people that we love,” said the Rev. Jeff Bogue, of Grace Church in Bath, where five of the funerals for the victims took place. “I don’t think we’re remembering the shootings. We’re remembering the day that our lives were changed.

“Someone asked me, is it good to remember this or should we go back to normal? I said, this is normal,” he added. “Our normal has been redefined. Our lives are forever affected by the shooting, and if you don’t embrace that, you’re living in denial.”

Bogue will preside over a community memorial service Aug. 7 at 7 p.m. in Pavilion C at Copley Community Park, 3232 Copley Road. The event is open to all.

The Rev. Robert Denton, executive director of the Victim Assistance Program, which helped in the aftermath of the shooting, agreed that marking the anniversary is a way to help the community continue to heal from the event.

“This is a kind of event that involved an entire community,” said Denton, himself a Copley resident. “People were tied together; they knew the families and vice versa. And it was incongruous to the day, a nice sunny day and in a peaceful area, to have something of that size and deadliness happen.”

Township Trustee Helen Humphrys, who lives in the neighborhood where the shootings took place and knew the families involved, said the community is moving forward one year after.

“I think there’s quiet acceptance,” she said. “It’s made the community stronger. It’s like a hen and her chicks — it gathers them closer. It’s awakened a lot of us that it can happen in their own town.”

She said she’s heartened to see that members of the community worked to bring back Heritage Day this year, and added the trustees also tried to put more focus on the community this past year.

There are two places in the township that are memorials to the shooting victims. Last year, Hummel Funeral Home installed a granite bench at Copley Circle with images and names of the victims.

More recently, Copley Boy Scout Brendan Ahern has worked to create a memorial garden at Copley Community Park. Copley Service Director Mark Mitchell said the garden is located in the southeast corner of the park near the skating pond site.

While there had been talk of moving the bench to the park, Humphrys said last week the plan is to keep it in its place. She said the park is a fitting site for the garden because Russell Johnson was an active volunteer in the local parks.

She added the garden will provide a place for people to stop and reflect on the events and the friends that were lost.

“It’s a gentle reminder that with a tragedy like that we would never forget the people we lost,” Humphrys said. “It will be a gentle reminder that we lost some very nice people and we hope it never happens again.”

Focusing on the victims and not on the incident is what Bogue said he wants to do at the service, which will feature comments from him and others and a balloon launch.

“There are lives that can be celebrated,” Bogue said. “There are silver linings to this storm cloud. We have been drawn together as a community, and we have leaned into our faith instead of away from it. There’s a lot to be remembered and celebrated that is good while not denying the fact that we are gathering because evil was done.”

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