After her daughter, Jessica, was killed in 2012 during the shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, that took 12 lives, Phillips said she and her husband sold their house and lived out of a camper for the duration of the shooter’s trial. Since then she’s been living on the road and has traveled to several cities in the wake of mass shootings: Newtown, also in 2012; Isla Vista in 2014; San Bernardino in 2015; Orlando in 2016. As soon as the news broke of the mass shooting in Las Vegas on Sunday night, Phillips began preparations to travel to the city.
“There’s an unspoken understanding that no one else really can give you,” Teves said. “There’s no words that even need to be spoken. It is a very unique situation that we’re in, but all too common. I call us the unfortunate family of gun-violence survivors.
Colin Goddard, a senior policy advocate in Everytown’s Washington office, was shot four times during the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting. The mother of Ashley Cech, a program associate for the Survivor Network, was a librarian during the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting who barricaded the door to keep the shooter out. Everytown is a nonprofit that aims to reduce gun violence, and the survivor network is focused on advocacy—helping survivors share their stories and get involved in activism. But some have found.
And unfortunately, our family keeps growing every day.”Many of Phillips’s closest friends are now other survivors. “Sometimes it’s just good to have somebody wrap their arms around you and say ‘I’ve been in your shoes, I get it,’” she said. “Because quite frankly, we lose friends in the process. Because they don’t know. We’re new beings, we’re totally different than we used to be.
That confuses them, and they end up finding ways to leave you.”. These connections between survivors happen informally and organically for the most part, it seems, but several people I spoke to said they met other gun-violence survivors through the Everytown Survivor Network, part of the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety.
Everytown is a nonprofit that aims to reduce gun violence, and the survivor network is focused on advocacy—helping survivors share their stories and get involved in activism. But some have found a sense of community there as well. (A Facebook group for the Everytown Survivor Network helps them stay in touch.)“I honestly don’t think I would be where I am mentally or emotionally without the relationships that I’ve been able to build with other survivors through my advocacy work,” said Erica Lafferty, an organizer for Everytown. Lafferty’s mother, Dawn Hochsprung, was the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and was killed in the shooting in 2012.Minutes before our conversation, Lafferty had been on the phone with her friend Jenna Passalacqua Yuille. The two met at an Everytown training. Passalacqua Yuille also lost her mother, Cindy Yuille, in a shooting, at a mall outside Portland, Oregon, on December 11, 2012—three days before the shooting at Sandy Hook.
When the attendees at that training were introducing themselves, “Erica was one of the first people to go and I was one of the last,” Passalacqua Yuille said. “I remember when we finished, she and I just got up and went to the middle of the room, and gave each other a hug.
Neither of us had ever met anyone who had lost their mom to gun violence, and just in such a similar way, and it was three days apart—it was just uncanny.”The two have been close ever since, despite not living in the same city. In 2016, Passalacqua Yuille traveled to Connecticut to spend Mother’s Day with Lafferty. “She and I have formed an amazing bond,” Lafferty said. “Particularly on days like today after the Las Vegas shooting, we’re constantly texting back and forth and checking in on each other. So it was actually really amazing to hear her voice, leading into this conversation.
I was like, ‘Jenna, I love you. You know when to call, always.’”When Phillips travels to places where mass shootings have occurred, she tries to be a resource for victims and their families—“to let them know what’s ahead of them,” she said. To prepare them for things they might not think to expect. “You’re going to have people who say it never happened, and this was a hoax,” Phillips said.
“You’re going to have horrible, horrible things said to you, unfortunately, and here’s who you need to talk to when that happens.”. (The man to talk to, she says, is Lenny Pozner, who lost his son, Noah, in the Sandy Hook shooting, and who started the, an organization dedicated to getting harassing posts and hoaxer videos taken down.
Pozner told me that such posts were already popping up for the Las Vegas shooting “as soon as news reports started to come out.”)Another thing Phillips warns people about: “You get triggered by things you wouldn’t believe would bother you,” she said. “I got triggered by the smell of popcorn, and didn’t understand why until I put together that the last thing my daughter ate was popcorn. I smelled it and started gagging, and I couldn’t understand. I love popcorn.”Lafferty remembers going to a dinner in D.C.
For an event, and the dining room was close to a lobby where staff were putting some chairs away. “Somebody dropped a chair and I jumped,” she said. “And Steve Barton, who was shot in the Aurora movie-theater shooting, just kind of grabbed my knee and said ‘That’ll go away soon.’”. If Las Vegas survivors become part of this community, it will probably happen later.
Melissa Brymer, the director of terrorism and disaster programs at the UCLA-Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, says that families who lose someone in a mass shooting are typically in shock for the first couple months. “We tend to hear that families begin to start that grieving around that two–three month mark,” she said.
“That tends to be a time that they can kind of digest all of this.”“We never force it,” Phillips says of her interactions with survivors. “We say ‘We’re here,’ or ‘This is what we do, we’re thinking of you.’ If they want anything more than that, then we’re here for them. We give them our phone numbers, and tell them how to reach us.
We let them take the lead after the initial contact.”Passalacqua Yuille points out that some survivors may prefer to grieve alone, or to keep to themselves in the long term, rather than get involved in advocacy work or befriending other survivors. “They kind of just want to live their lives, that’s their way of dealing with it,” she said. “Everyone’s different,” Teves said.
“We didn’t even want to talk to anyone after Aurora. We hid from the media.
We hid from everyone.” In the aftermath of the shooting, they wanted privacy. She’s since gotten involved in advocacy, and runs a movement called that encourages media outlets to limit the attention given to killers after mass shootings.Of the victims and loved ones affected by the Las Vegas shooting, Teves said: “We’re always there for them. And our hearts are also broken for them. Unfortunately, they’re part of the family now.”This story has been updated to better reflect Phillips's preparations to travel to Las Vegas.We want to hear what you think about this article. To the editor or write to [email protected].
Erik is an artist, founding partner of Queers Uniting to End Exploitation, national speaker, human trafficking survivor expert, and community leader in Seattle, WA. He seeks to revolutionize the systems that sought to serve him but failed. Erik has been a community organizer and activist – centering HIV prevention/care and anti-oppression work for the past decade in the Seattle area.
Today, Erik takes focus in anti-trafficking and sex work movements. Within these movements, he most recently championed gender and LGBTQ2IA+ inclusion for CSE (commercial sexual exploitation) services in King county through his work at REST (Real Escape from the Sex Trade).
Previously, he launched a shelter focused on serving youth of color with YouthCare. He is the first male survivor advocate in Seattle, WA intentionally serving survivors of all genders.
He has also served on the Kitsap County Human Rights Commission, as Student President of Olympic College, on multiple Diversity Advisory Boards and Bailey-Boushay HIV/AIDS hospice. Erik continues his dedication to public service through the City of Seattle Human Rights Commission Human Trafficking Taskforce Chair, and with the Seattle Metropolitan Elections Commission (SEAMEC) Steering Committee.CLOSE. Rafael Bautista is an Expert Consultant for OVCTTAC, the Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center and NHTTAC, National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center. His expertise and real-life experience have helped different organizations across the country in creating training programs, strategies, videos, and outreach material for human trafficking awareness.Graduated from the first Human Trafficking Leadership Academy, Mr. Bautista has participated in various panels and plenary sessions across the country like Washington, DC, Atlanta, GA, Los Angeles, CA, Reno, NV, Chicago, IL and in his local area, Sacramento, CA. Bautista participated in the event, “Handling Human Trafficking Cases” with the Judicial Council of California.As a member of the National Survivor Network and Freedom Network USA, Mr.
Bautista has testified in support of bills that provide better services for survivors of human trafficking. He assisted Humanity United on the development of Pathways to Freedom; the Department of Homeland Security with their Blue Campaign- the Department’s human trafficking awareness and education programs.Rafael Bautista is currently a paralegal for a Law Office community. Bautista has shared his skills and expertise with his fellow advocates and his fellow survivors, believing that any and all survivors can be restored and reintegrated into society in a positive way, with the proper support.CLOSE. King is a survivor of human trafficking /sexual exploitation. She was coerced and forced into the lifestyle of prostitution at the tender age of 15 in Grand Rapids, MI, and she became trapped in the underworld of prostitution and drug addiction for over 20 years.
On July 4, 2000, Leslie miraculously found the strength and the courage to get free. For the past 18 years she has been intense and intentional about working with women and teenage girls who find themselves trapped in the same horrors and loss of purpose that she experienced. In 2005, Leslie utilized her experience, expertise, and inspiring example of a renewed life to open Sacred Beginnings, a safe haven that offers hope, and healing to prostituted women.Leslie consults with law enforcement agencies, human service professionals, clergy, and others requesting direction and understanding in working with prostituted women, teenagers, and children. Leslie also speaks at various conferences and academic institutions on the issue of human trafficking.Leslie has earned awards including the 2008 YWCA advocate of the year and 2011 Rising Hero award. Leslie was also nominated for woman of the year in Grand Rapids, MI in 2005.
Chosen 1 of “50 Most Influential Women in West Michigan” in 2014. Leslie was awarded the Michigan 2018 Liberator award. She is well respected in the inner city of Grand Rapids from which she hails; she is often seen “boldly going where many people are afraid to go” during unconventional hours doing outreach to prostituted women and teenagers who experience her pain both past and present.CLOSE. Samantha Floyd is the coordinator of the South Central Kentucky Human Trafficking Task Force and a former Policy Champion within NSN.
She was a 2018 Fellow with the Human Trafficking Leadership Academy. She is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, holding a Bachelor of Social Work, Cum Laude and a Masters of Science in Social Work.
During her college career, she served as officer in a number of student organizations, honor societies and worked extensively with students and faculty committees on topics of racism and multiculturalism. She has led and participated on several research teams, with primary focus on marginalized populations.For over fifteen years, Samantha worked in the nonprofit arena in a variety of executive and consultant roles dealing with adolescent mental health, crisis assessment, public health, communicable diseases, managed care, long term care, home health and hospice.
She has been trained by the Centers for Disease Control as a Train the Trainer in HIV rapid testing and harm reduction, with specific focus on adult learners. Samantha was an adjunct professor for three years, with a primary focus on multicultural studies.Samantha believes in giving back to the community. She has served as a field instructor and advisory board member for several university social work programs. She has volunteered with United Way, the Department of Children’s Services, Juvenile Court’s Foster Care Advisory Board and Court Appointed Special Advocate programs, and has served on the board of directors for a handful of nonprofits and community organizations. Samantha volunteers regularly with survivor led organizations in Kentucky: Women of the Well in Louisville and Phoenix Rising in Bowling Green. Samantha has been a member of the National Survivor Network since 2015.Ms. Floyd’s areas of expertise include Human Trafficking Policy; Racism and Criminalization within Human Trafficking; Participatory Research, Policy, Prevention and Service Delivery; Activism and Reform; and Survivor Leadership.CLOSE.
Ima Matul is a survivor of labor trafficking, when she was 17 years old, she was brought to Los Angeles from Indonesia with the promise of a job as a nanny. Suleman Masood is a Subject Matter Expert and Executive Board Member for theNational Survivor Network (NSN). Suleman has served as a Human Trafficking Subject MatterExpert in the anti-trafficking movement since 2013. Raised in Santa Maria, California, Mr.Masood’s tireless campaign in completing his education gave him the opportunity to attendCalifornia State University Fresno to complete his bachelor’s degree.
Masood has served asa consultant throughout the state of California, as well as for the federal government. Aftergraduating, Mr. Masood was selected to participate in a pilot leadership development cohortunder the Office of Trafficking in Persons and NTTAC’s leadership and in partnership with CoroNorthern California. Masood was credited with creating the textbook definition of“survivor-informed,” which was published by the Administration for Children & Families.Mr. Masood’s experience in public speaking has given him the ability to speak out as anadvocate for survivors of human trafficking, specifically male labor survivors of crime. In thesepresentations, he details his experiences with victim services and advocating on ways toimprove the quality of services.
Masood has delivered curriculum and training with OVCTTAC on “Tips of Engagement from a Survivor Leader’s Perspective”, as well as helping tocreate an “E-guide for Creating a Human Trafficking Task Force”. This work emphasizes theneed to partner with survivors and ensure that strategies and implementation are created witha trauma-informed approach. Masood’s commitment to education is living proof that if asurvivor is given a platform to return to normalcy, they will not only thrive but be the bestadvocates in uplifting others.CLOSE. Over the last decade Jess Torres has dedicated their professional work to gender and racial activism focusing on education, community organizing and empowering survivors of trafficking, exploitation and gender violence to heal and reclaim their lives. Nat Paul is a transgender identified survival sex/trafficking survivor.
She has worked with Office for Victims of Crime during their Jan 2016 Survivor Forum. She was a part of the SOAR (Stop, Observe, Ask, and Respond to Human Trafficking) Technical Working Group under the Department of Health and Human Services 2016. She has given Survivor input into video awareness campaigns for Department of Homeland Securities Blue Campaign as well as input for the Health and Human Services awareness campaign. She is the policy chair of the National Survivors Network under Coalition to Abolish and Slavery &Trafficking; as a member of National Survivor Network she has assisted in a lobbying campaign to help Senator Gillibrand promote vacate legislation to assist survivor’s lives federally.
She has also presented as a survivor leader for the training of dealing with victims of trafficking, at the National Network for Youth’s Summit on Homelessness in DC. Nat has participated in the Freedom Network Conference on panels. She is currently working on the policy priorities of NSN on the hill.
Nat is working to establish PRISM: Pride and Respect for Individuals in Sexual Minorities that will assist in research, awareness, and long term aftercare of LGBTQ survivors of trafficking in persons.CLOSE.