Trolley victims getting help from Utah fund

Even as top government officials meet today in Utah to explore the lessons to be learned from the tragedies of mass public shootings, help quietly continues for the victims.

It comes through paperwork, phone calls and the issuance of a check — money that certainly won't change the outcome of what happened at Trolley Square, but money that can be used as a down payment to ease suffering.

"I think it is clear that crime-victim reparations can't solve all the problems and can't make the victim completely whole," said Ron

Gordon, executive director of the Utah Office of Crime Victim Reparations. "We recognize that victimization may take a long time to recover from, and we fill a very narrow but important role."

That compensation happens in the background of the public glare of the Department of Justice's announcement this week that President George Bush has directed a fact-finding mission by three of his top officials into mass public shootings.

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt and Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings are visiting seven states — including Utah — where such events have occurred. The trio do not plan to visit the states together but are divvying up their meetings in various states.

Gonzales was not slated to visit Utah as part of his travels, Justice spokesman Dean Boyd said Thursday, but a Justice Department representative will be at today's event in which Leavitt is scheduled to meet with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. The meeting also includes other local leaders, educators, mental-health experts and law enforcement officials, who will discuss issues stirred by mass shootings.

Similar discussions are expected to play out in Minnesota, Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee, Texas, California and Colorado. A report on the findings is to be submitted to President Bush within 30 days.

While much of the focus is likely to be aimed at prevention — stopping killers such as Trolley's Sulejman Talovic and Virginia Tech's Seung-Hui Cho before they start — Gordon's agency and others are left dealing with the immediate impact of what happened.

In the aftermath of the Trolley shooting, the crime-victim reparations office dispersed nearly $60,000 in assistance to victims — assistance that can range from help with funeral expenses to compensation for lost wages. Gordon expects that before the final check is written, the fund will have spent at least an additional $200,000 in compensation to Trolley victims.