Pastor’s son died trying to save lives during Virginia Beach mass shooting
Ryan Keith Cox, the beloved son of a Virginia Beach pastor who was among 12 people fatally gunned down at a Virginia Beach municipal building, last Friday sacrificed his life to save others, colleagues say.
"If it wasn't for him, there would have been several more people that had perished," city employee Christi Dewar told CNN affiliate WAVY.
The shooter, DeWayne Craddock, a 40-year-old former soldier and an engineer who had worked for the City of Virginia Beach for about 15 years, informed his superiors on Friday that he would be resigning from his job.
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Dewar told WAVY that she wasn’t worried when she first heard what she thought were popping sounds coming from ongoing construction work at the building. When people started yelling “active shooter” she began running for cover with her colleagues.
She soon saw Cox, who told her to hide inside a colleague's office "now."
"Barricade the office," she said Cox, an account clerk, told her.
"'I said 'Come on Keith' and he said 'I gotta check on everybody else,'" Dewar explained to WAVY.
"We closed and locked the door and we pushed the cabinet up against the door," she said.
And that was the last she heard from Cox.
"He was a hero," Dewar said. "A guardian angel that walked this earth that didn't deserve to leave us so soon."
Bishop Ezekiel Williams of Faith World Ministries in Norfolk told The Virginian-Pilot that he's known Cox and his family for years. Cox's father is the pastor at New Hope Baptist Church in Virginia Beach and the late accountant would sing on the choir.
"They were close. Very, very loving family," Williams said. "This family has been just leaders in the church world and our hearts go out to them during this time of loss, as well as all of the victims that were affected from this tragedy yesterday. Rev. Cox and his wife and his sons are good individuals."
Cox's older brother Ervin revealed how painful it has been to lose his brother.
“My heart is hurting because my baby brother was murdered today by the shooter in Virginia Beach mass shooting. I won’t hears his beautiful singing voice at church or home anymore. I loved my brother and will truly miss his caring soul. Until we meet again in heaven,” he wrote on Facebook.
Dewar told The Virginian-Pilot that the night after the shooting, she went to see Cox's parents to let them know their son died a hero.
Calling him a gentleman, she also noted that he was very kind to her and would sometimes give her a hug when she was feeling down. Whenever he gave her a ride home, he would always ensure she arrived safely at her door as well even though she told him sometimes he didn’t have to.
"What kind of gentleman do you think I am?" he would say, she said. "I take my ladies up to their door and make sure they're safe before I leave."
She said before she left, she asked Ervin for a hug and he was just as kind as his brother.
"I said, 'I know you're not the teddy bear, but can I have a hug?' And he said 'you certainly can.' Just having him give me that hug just helped out so much last night," Dewar said.
