San Bernardino terrorist attack memorial opens June 20
Six and a half years after the 2015 San Bernardino terror attack, the San Bernardino County memorial to the victims will open to the public on June 20.
On Dec. 2, 2015, county Environmental Health Services employees were at an off-site training event at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino when a coworker and his wife opened fire on them in a meeting room. Fourteen people were killed and 22 wounded. Both shooters were later killed in a gun battle with police.
Sandra Espinoza, whose husband Juan was one of the 14 mass shooting victims at the Inland Regional Center, sits on a model of one of the benches with the phrase “When you’re coming, I’m already going” which will accompany a panel following a ceremony at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands on Dec. 2, 2021. The “Curtain of Courage” memorial is scheduled to open to the public on June 20 and will be installed on the eastern side of the county government building on North Arrowhead Avenue. (File photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
A model of the Curtain of Courage memorial for the 14 victims of the Inland Regionals Center mass shooting sits on display during an unveiling of the future memorial at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands on Dec. 2, 2021. The “Curtain of Courage” memorial is scheduled to open to the public on June 20 and will be installed on the eastern side of the county government building on North Arrowhead Avenue. (File photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
An artist’s rendering of the December 2 Memorial planned for the San Bernardino County Government Center campus. The memorial will include a curved curtain made of bronze and steel, creating alcoves where each of the 14 victims of the 2015 attack at Inland Regional Center will be commemorated with colored glass and inscription chosen by their family. (Rendering courtesy of San Bernardino County)
A committee made up of county staff, survivors of the attack and family members, selected Oakland-based designer Walter Hood from among 85 applicants to craft the memorial. Hood is an internationally known landscape architect and designer, who also designed the Broad Museum Plaza in downtown Los Angeles.
His design, the Curtain of Courage memorial, will be located on the eastern side of the San Bernardino County Government Center on North Arrowhead Avenue in San Bernardino. The $1.3 million memorial features curving mesh panels made of bronze and steel. The curtain is designed to evoke protective gear, with layers of chain meant to resemble a bulletproof vest, according Hood.
The curtain’s curves create 14 alcoves, one for each of those killed in the shooting. The alcoves have a panel of colored glass in a shade chosen by family members of the victims. A phrase chosen by family members is inscribed on a bench in each alcove. And inside each bench, invisible to the public, is a small keepsake chosen by the family. A nearby informational plaque recounts the events of Dec. 2, 2015 in English, Spanish and Vietnamese.
The memorial will open to the public at 8 a.m. June 20.
A mock-up of the county’s memorial was displayed at the San Bernardino County Museum in December.
Another memorial to the victims of the attack — a peace garden — opened in 2016 at Cal State San Bernardino.