Workers return to site of San Bernardino attack

Ms. Johnson said that people missed each other and their daily work routines. It was hosting a training session and holiday party for San Bernardino County’s Department of Public Health on December 2 when Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, an inspector with the department, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 29, began their shooting rampage.

Monday’s reopening will include emotional reunions for numerous workers who have not visited the site since a brief visit to collect belongings after the attack.

The AP reported that the campus has been fenced in while authorities have investigated the shooting. After all, center employees or clients were not the focus of the attackers, whom the Federal Bureau of Investigation says were motivated by radical Islamist beliefs.

County offices were closed at noon to allow as many employees as possible to attend.

“I always hoped and prayed I’d never be in front of an audience like this, talking about the second-worst attack in our nation’s history”, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said, drawing comparisons to his own experience helping that city recover from the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“Fight back. Make something good come out of this”, he said.

“You defeat that by coming out of this as an example of how strong people can be when they love each other”, he said. “You can’t beat us”. Those people didn’t die for nothing. Professional counselors will be available for employees who want them. “It is not grief that paralyzes us – it’s fear”.

“As you can imagine, it has been a very hard time for us and we’re very glad to be back at our IRC home”, facility executive director Lavinia Johnson told a cluster of reporters outside the center Monday morning. They yearn to renew a sense of stability at an institution unmoored by violence.

Johnson stood outside the courtyard between Buildings 1 and 2 to greet more than 500 returning employees. “We want to ensure that our staff feels safe and secure as they work in their offices”.

A welcome and food were planned for returning employees.

Sitting for an interview last week in a tidy courtyard shaded by two of the center’s large, red stone buildings, Johnson and associate executive director Kevin Urtz reflected on the reopening. “There’s no blueprint for this kind of thing, and everybody is going to react to it differently”.

The San Bernardino community has given the center a great deal of support since the terrorist attack. But they all haven’t been together in one place since the shootings.

As employees entered the still fenced and screen off parking lot, Ron Pollakoff, 41, of San Bernardino held up a sign reading: “I (heart) IRC”.