VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Before he was known as one of those killed in Friday’s mass shooting, Keith Cox was known as a hero.
Christi Dewar was one of the city employees at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center in Building 2 that was spared from the rampage — and she says she owes it to her late friend, Cox.
It began with popping sounds. Dewar says she thought it was the sound of construction.
But then Dewar saw people running down the halls, yelling “active shooter!” She and seven other people began to run too. That’s when they came across Cox.
“He said ‘get in Lori’s office now. Barricade the office. Get in there.’ and I said ‘come on Keith’ and he said ‘I gotta check on everybody else.’ And we closed and locked the door and we pushed the cabinet up against the door and it was not too long after that DeWayne tried to come in and he fired four shots. And I looked out and two of the shots had almost come through the cabinet, the back of the cabinet,” said Christi.
Thanks to our news partner WAVY TV-10 for their reporting on this story.