Virginia Beach Mass Shooting Commission member resigns, alleges obstruction by city

The state commission investigating a 2019 mass shooting in Virginia Beach is down to six voting members after yet another member resigned.

David Cariens, a retired CIA analyst appointed by Del. Kelly Convirs-Fowler, shared his Thursday resignation letter with The Virginian-Pilot.

“We owe everyone who mourns the loss of a spouse, sister, brother, coworker, or friend to conduct the investigation,” he wrote. “To do less is a disgrace. I cannot be part of a Commission that engages in duplicity, half-truths, and excuses for the city and its elected officials and employees.”

A disgruntled city employee went on a rampage at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center on May 31, 2019, fatally shooting 12 people before he was killed by police. In the aftermath, two state delegates pushed to create the commission due to concerns from some survivors that the city’s investigation was not independent enough to be effective. The commission came under fire late last year amid a string of resignations, poor meeting attendance and allegations of dysfunction.

The panel started with 21 members, but is now down to six voting members and one ex-officio.

When asked for comment on the most recent resignation, Chairman Ryant Washington said in an email that he was not informed of Cariens intent to resign until he received his letter.

“The Commission would like to thank Mr. Cariens for his time and work on such an important matter,” he wrote. “The Commission continues to work towards fulfilling the tasks assigned.”

In addition to Washington, Cariens also sent the letter to Convirs-Fowler, Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares. Convirs-Fowler, D-Virginia Beach, and Miyares — then a Virginia Beach Republican delegate — worked together to create the commission in 2020.

Cariens attached an 88-page document to his resignation letter outlining a series of his findings and concerns.

In the document, he said the commission faced many roadblocks from the start: It was underfunded, some of its members had ties to Virginia Beach, there were too many members originally — which made it difficult to get a quorum — and it lacked subpoena power.

“A number of individuals would not talk to us because they did not have the protection against the possible city’s retaliation that subpoena power affords,” he wrote.

Cariens further asserted that the city of Virginia Beach appeared to have engaged in a “campaign of obstructionism” by withholding documents and discouraging city employees from speaking to the commission.

In an emailed statement, Jessica Gilera, deputy director of communications for Virginia Beach, said the city supports the commission.

She said the city has a three-step process for handling requests from the commission: Members can request staff interviews and submit questions in advance to the city’s chief of staff; the chief of staff informs the City Council about the request and the city’s intended response; staff then have the choice to present their response in writing or speak to the commission in-person at a public meeting.

“We will continue to support the Commission as their needs arise and have a dedicated liaison to ensure inquiries are addressed,” Gilera wrote.

Cariens asserted the city of Newport News, where the shooter previously worked, was also uncooperative and did not respond to his requests to interview the gunman’s former co-workers and supervisors.

A spokesperson for the city did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

In his document, Cariens said he concluded from his findings that the gunman worked in an “unhealthy environment” that many described as toxic. He said employees were discouraged from sharing concerns or grievances and some low-and-mid level managers humiliated employees in front of their co-workers.

“No one could have predicted when or where a shooting would occur. But serious workplace violence of some sort was probably inevitable,” Cariens wrote. ” …In these cauldrons of incompetent leadership, there was a man suffering from mental illness.”

Cariens alleged that some commission members did not want to thoroughly investigate and appeared to take their cues from the city.

Another commission member, Rebecca Cowan — who resigned in November — previously shared similar concerns in an email to Miyares and Convirs-Fowler.

Cowan told the lawmakers that efforts to obtain information were being met with resistance from both the city and some commission members.

“In my opinion, manipulative attempts have been made to stifle information-seeking, and as I reflect on my time on the commission, I have concerns that the commission’s work is being obstructed from within, either deliberately or due to negligence,” she wrote on Nov. 22.

Washington has previously defended the commission’s work.

“If there is any indication or implication that individuals (on this commission) do not care, I would say that is certainly a false narrative,” he said during a commission meeting in December. “I can say that we have had meetings — we have done some due diligence, we have had presentations, we’ve had speakers, we’ve had letters written.”

Prior to his resignation, Cariens obtained a copy of a hard drive from a laptop allegedly recovered from the condo of the gunman and turned it over to the attorney general’s office for examination. The laptop was purportedly found in the gunman’s home last year when a sister of a shooting victim obtained his condo following a wrongful death lawsuit against the administrator of his estate.

Katie King, katie.king@virginiamedia.com