Once a busy manufacturing plant that produced water valves for its parent company, the Henry Pratt facility on Highland Avenue in Aurora now sits empty, with nothing on the outside to remind passersby of the fatal mayhem that took place at 1:27 p.m. on Feb. 15, 2019.
But Thursday – five years later, on that same date, at that same time – a few dozen people, including police officers and former Pratt employees, stood quietly near the wind-whipped flagpole of the now-shuttered warehouse to remember and to draw strength from each other.
Mostly they were there to pray – for those who survived the mass shooting and for those who did not.
Five Henry Pratt employees lost their lives during a termination meeting when a co-worker about to be fired pulled out a gun and began shooting. The five employees who were killed included the plant manager and a young intern who was at his first day on the job. Five responding police officers, as well as another employee, were shot and wounded during the incident.
There were plenty of others also deeply impacted by the actions of the gunman Gary Martin, who was killed during a gun battle with police inside the Pratt building.
The families of the five murdered victims will forever be at the forefront of our thoughts, particularly on the fifth anniversary of the shooting. But also reeling from this senseless act of violence was the community itself, including the hundreds of employees of that building, many of whom had worked for Pratt for decades.
They knew the victims as co-workers and friends. They knew the shooter in that capacity, as well.
And they knew their lives would never be the same.
Not only did employees struggle from the immediate shockwaves of the shooting, eventually they got hit with other fallouts, including losing their jobs when the company began relocating the Aurora facility to its headquarters in Tennessee.
Anita Lewis pulled together this afternoon prayer vigil at the site of the shooting because she understands that loss well.
As a certified grief counselor who was also in Pratt management, Lewis had the job of informing family members as they gathered in shock at Aurora University that evening five years ago about who had not survived the attack.
She attended all the wakes and funerals, including the service for Martin that focused on forgiveness. She helped organize a large company “Celebration of Life” for the victims and later led a coalition of community leaders which wanted to find ways of addressing mental health issues.
Lewis was the perfect liaison between the union and management, wearing the company hat for most of her four decades with Pratt while also forming tight bonds with union employees who, in her words, “became like family.”
Who better to know the temperature of that shattered and now-scattered family as the fifth anniversary approached.
“They are still grieving and will always grieve,” said Lewis, who also brought forth a resolution Thursday at the Kane County Board Judicial Committee meeting recognizing the actions of Kane County’s first responders including the sheriff’s department on that tragic day.
Leading Thursday’s afternoon prayer vigil were the Aurora police chaplains – the Revs. Dan Haas, Randy Schoof and Edwin Ruiz – who had conducted a similar prayer vigil at the Pratt facility two days after the shooting, a blistering cold event attended by more than 500 people trying to make sense of a tragedy that, as so many noted, “only happened in other communities.”
Thursday’s vigil was far smaller, and thankfully warmer. But the intent was similar.
“To remember how Aurora came together and prayed and cried together,” said Lewis. “We still need to pray for our city, for our safety and for our reunification. But we are so busy now going in so many directions, we get sidetracked from the lessons we can all learn from this tragedy.”
During this half-hour vigil, a half dozen or so joined Lewis is sharing their thoughts about the shooting and its aftermath, including Aurora Police Chief Keith Cross, who was there with three of his command staff; retired Aurora Police Cmdr. Liz Chan-Robinson; retired Aurora Police Lt. Jeff Winseck; and former Pratt employee Cheryl Barnes, who spoke poignantly about the ripple affect that shooting tragedies produce.
Finally, all five pastors who were present – including the Revs. Jamin Becker and Bryan Shore, the newest Aurora Police Department chaplain – each prayed for one of the five victims, giving others a chance to recall the personalities of their slain co-workers.
Russell Beyer was remembered as a big jokester; Vicente Juarez as a family man above all else; Clayton Parks and Josh Pinkard for their big smiles and the little children they left behind.
Standing quietly in the back with his surviving son, Tom Wehner also took a few moments to speak about his murdered son Trevor, a Northern Illinois University student who had started his first day as an intern at Pratt on Feb. 15, 2019.
“He had a great laugh, he was looking forward to a future with his girlfriend, getting married. He was a good student, involved in his community,” Wehner told the group.
And he was so excited to start this job, younger brother Thomas eventually reminded his dad, “I think he forgot to take his lunch.”
Also later, Trevor’s father admitted he did not even know this vigil was taking place, but that he and Thomas make it a point of stopping by the Pratt plant every year on this date, at this time.
They never stay long, maybe 20 minutes, but drop off some flowers “and we just pray … pray for everybody,” he told me.
“This was the last place they were all with us.”
Tom Wehner and his son agree not a day goes by they do not think of Trevor. A foundation in his name has been set up by the family that provides scholarship money to area high school students because, insisted his dad, “education is important to us.”
As is the support they have received from the community.
“It is so good to see Aurora citizens getting together and calling out to God … bless our city as a whole,” said Schoof.
“God gave us humans a choice, to do right or wrong … but we can take the bad things and make good out of it,” he said. “He brings healing.”
dcrosby@tribpub.com
