It’s been just over two months since the Annunciation school shooting and families continue navigating the unforeseen aftermath.
Some of the families are dealing with bills and how to pay them.
“Sometimes it just feels like a dream or a nightmare,” said Brock Safe. “This has shaken all of us to our core. We’re all going through hell, it’s tough.”
Safe’s two daughters are students at Annunciation Catholic School.
“My youngest, Astoria, she went through a lot. She was shot, grazed by a bullet of her forehead. She had a big piece of bullet fragment in her neck.”
Now Safe and other families are stuck in aftermath.
“We have a [huge] stack of bills,” said Safe.
The bills are piling up and some of the families are struggling to pay them.
The Minnesota Crime Victims Reimbursement Program, a program that has been around since the 70s, is available to help.
“It’s open to anyone who’s been the victim of a violent crime,” said Rabb, the deputy director for the Office of Justice Programs within the Department of Public Safety.
Those crimes include homicides, assaults, kidnapping, domestic violence and mass shootings.
Rabb says her team arrived at the shooting soon after it happened.
“What was hardest was just the volume of young people. It’s a very close-knit community,” said Rabb.
Victims have up to three years to sign up for assistance, but Rabb encourages them to sign up sooner than later. There are caps on the amount victims can claim but include money for funeral expenses and even lost wages.
Safe says his family is trying to move forward, but he doesn’t want people to forget the tragedy.
“The biggest fear is when you lose someone in this situation, it’s people forgetting about them,” said Safe.
Tony Peterson
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