On May 31, 2019, 50-year-old Ryan Keith Cox, a city account clerk and a 12-and-a-half-year veteran of the public utilities department in Virginia Beach, Virginia, was killed inside the municipal building during a workplace shooting. The gunman, identified in reports as city engineer DeWayne Craddock, opened fire and ultimately killed 12 people and wounded four before the shooter was killed in a gunfight with police.

Witnesses say Cox guided a group of coworkers into a nearby office, urged them to barricade the door and stay quiet, and refused to remain with them because he went back to help others. He was confronted in the hallway and fatally shot; the seven colleagues he had ushered to safety survived. Survivors and family described him as kind and devout; his father, a local pastor, delivered the eulogy at a funeral attended by hundreds, including the governor. Cox was posthumously awarded the Carnegie Medal for his actions.

If anyone knew Ryan, worked with him, or has information about that day that hasn’t been shared publicly, please contribute what can help remember him and clarify the record.