UNLV to build ‘healing garden’ memorializing 2023 shooting

Two years after a gunman killed three UNLV professors and seriously injured another, the college says it has plans to construct a healing garden that memorializes the tragedy.

On Dec. 6, 2023, Anthony Polito, 67, shot and killed professors Patricia Navarro Velez, 39, Cha-Jan “Jerry” Chang, 64, and Naoko Takemaru, 69, inside UNLV’s Beam Hall. Polito also shot professor Daraboth “Bot” Rith, 37, 10 times, leaving him critically injured before two Metropolitan Police Department officers gave him medical care.

Renderings from UNLV place the garden on the south side of the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, cater-corner to Beam Hall and containing four curved benches that surround a large tree. Near each bench will be an additional tree and flowers, both originating from each victim’s home country, according to Sarah Quigley, Faculty Senate Memorial Committee member and Memorial Arts Subcommittee co-chair.

Strips of light on the floor will appear to radiate from the central tree, and the four benches will be engraved with the names of the four victims, along with information about their lives.

UNLV interim president Chris Heavey told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he sees the memorial serving as both a calming spot to sit and an area to remember the shooting at.

“For everybody who was a part of this, it will forever be a part of their UNLV story, and it’s one of those tragic memories that kind of marks the history of people’s journey with the campus,” Heavey said. “We want to honor that and not ever seem like we’re trying to, you know, act like this tragic event didn’t happen. It did happen, and it forever scarred this community, but we will be resilient and move forward together.”

UNLV is set to reveal the new memorial concept during a remembrance gathering for the second anniversary of the shooting at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Donald C. Moyer Amphitheater.

Importance of remembering

Quigley, director of special collections and archives at Lied Library, has been one of the UNLV members leading the charge to establish a memorial commemorating the shooting.

She said the design concept, which resembles a flower from a birds-eye view, was chosen after researching memorials on other college campuses that experienced mass shootings. It was inspired by responses to a campus-wide survey asking for a memorial that looked natural and felt tranquil.

With mass shootings being “a fact of our society at the moment,” as Quigley described it, she said properly preserving the memories of each incident will help historians understand how communities responded to them.

“We’ve been struggling with these incredibly traumatic and destructive shootings now for over 20 years, and I think as a culture, we struggle to know what to do about them,” Quigley said. “Ensuring that that event will be remembered, I think, is powerful to people who are actively grieving and trying to process and understand what happened.”

Heavey called the last two years a “gradual journey” toward regaining normalcy on campus as UNLV community members have sought mental health support and painted murals to honor the victims.

“It was a horrific day for the campus and terrible in every way,” Heavey said. “It’s certainly a day that we will never forget.”

Since the shooting, Heavey said UNLV has invested in stronger security to prevent another attack. With school and state funding, UNLV has spent millions of dollars to improve lighting on campus, install outdoor security cameras and place emergency telephones around campus, Heavey said. He added that the university plans to equip classrooms with emergency telephones and buttons that instantly lock their doors in the future.

Quigley said the garden memorial, which will cost $1-2 million, doesn’t have a timeline for completion. But when it opens to community members, she said, she hopes it’ll help those affected by the shooting heal from the trauma it left in its wake.

“I think that the design is beautiful,” Quigley said. “I hope that the community agrees with us and that it is as meaningful and comforting to them as the committee hopes that it will be.”

Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.