On Sept. 6, 2018, Omar Enrique Santa-Perez ended three peoples’ lives and injured two with a legally-obtained 9 mm pistol before Cincinnati police shot and killed him in the downtown headquarters of Fifth Third Bank.
Now, as the one-year anniversary of the shooting approaches, Fifth Third is remembering the tragedy, those who died and those who survived.
Richard Newcomer, a 64-year-old construction superintendent for Gilbane Construction; Pruthvi Raj Kandepi, 25, a contractor for Maryland-based TEK Systems; and Luis Felipe Calderón, 48, a finance manager for Fifth Third, were the victims killed in the shooting. Whitney Austin, who worked as a vice president for Fifth Third, took 12 bullets in the shooting, but survived. The other wounded victim, Brian Sarver, was a contractor for CBRE. It was the deadliest mass shooting in Cincinnati in five years.
In an interview, Fifth Third Bank’s Chief Communications Officer Gary Rhodes said:
“For everyone at Fifth Third, Sept. 6 is never far from our thoughts. This is a day for us to remember and honor the memory of those lives that were lost and also to recognize the incredible bravery and the resilience of those who were injured and their recovery. At the same time, we are extremely grateful, forever grateful, to the first responders, to the police, to the security guards, to our employees who all came together — who prevented a tragedy from being even greater.
“On top of that, I would say that the incredible outpouring of support from the community, from the city, from all involved really resonates to this day with everyone at Fifth Third. So we’re forever grateful about that.
“For all of our employees who have worked so hard over the past year to move on, to love and support each other, we’re extremely proud how they have all come together to be Fifth Third strong.”
He added, “In times of crisis, the true human spirit really does shine through.”
Rhodes said that Fifth Third also recently made a donation to the fund for the victims of the mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio.
Austin, the former bank vice president who survived 12 gunshot wounds, now runs a nonprofit called the WhitneyStrong Foundation dedicated to ending gun violence and promoting responsible gun ownership.
This article appears in Sep 4-11, 2019.