By Supervisor James Ramos

A year has passed since the December 2, 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attack that targeted the employees of the county’s Environmental Health Services Division, and the impact on county employees and the organization has been profound.

Thirteen county employees and an Inland Regional Center worker were murdered that day by an apparently radicalized co-worker and his wife during a day-long training session and awards luncheon at the IRC, a non-county facility. Twenty other county employees were physically wounded, some quite severely. The other 38 employees who witnessed the attack are wounded emotionally to varying degrees in ways very few people who weren’t there can comprehend. Many of the survivors have not returned to work. Some are still recovering from gunshot wounds. Others just couldn’t bring themselves to return.

San Bernardino County owes a huge debt of gratitude to the counties of Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Marin, Orange, Riverside, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, who provided mutual aid support to the EHS division in the days, weeks and months following December 2, and to the counties who sent warm messages of support to wounded and grieving employees.