Odessans gathered last week to remember the mass shooting that stunned the community five years ago.
On Aug. 31, 2019, a gunman drove through the West Texas city firing seemingly at random, killing seven people and injuring 25 others. The event lasted for about an hour until police killed the shooter.
In the years following the shooting, community members and local leaders have come together to remember that day. And this year, Odessans marked the anniversary with the unveiling of a new memorial that local leaders hope will help the city heal.
In a sunset service last Thursday, dozens of people gathered to see the Bright Star Memorial for the first time. A rainbow hung over the crowd as they listened to speakers reflect on the mass shooting and the work that went into the creation of the 11-foot tall bronze cylinder inscribed with the names of the victims.
“This is the most important piece of public art I’ve ever done in my life,” said Randy Ham, executive director of Odessa Arts. “And it’s the one piece I wish I never had to do.”
The cylinder quietly sits at the top of a hill encircled by blocks of stone on land owned by the University of Texas Permian Basin. The path leading to the monument can be accessed by a nearby park and will soon l be covered in local grasses and wildflowers.
The Bright Star Memorial will be open around the clock so that locals have a place they can go whenever they need a peaceful place to process their trauma.
“The purpose of this memorial is to give the community…their agency back to do their own grieving and their own healing,” said Ham, who has been instrumental in getting the sculpture completed. “For so many of us it’s a personal journey.”
During this year’s memorial, a large procession made their way to see the Bright Star Memorial. Many wore yellow — the color used to symbolize Odessa’s resilience in the wake of the shooting.
The walk up to the sculpture is meant to give visitors time to mentally and emotionally prepare to see the art piece. The Bright Star Memorial was created by the artist Jim Sanborn who set out to create something more than just a list of names.
“I wanted to make it more personal by getting some quotes from families members of the deceased and from the survivors themselves,” he said.
That artwork really comes to life at night when the cylinder is illuminated by a single light which projects the names of victims and the words that accompany them onto the plaza around the sculpture.
It’s a striking scene that left Renee Earls stunned when she first saw a photo of the completed sculpture.
“In the dark of night when those lights are shining down and those letters from all those words are being reflected on the sidewalk, it just is a [symbol] of beauty,” she said.
Earls, the president of the Odessa Chambers of Commerce, spearheaded communication with the families of those who were killed and the survivors of the shooting over what they wanted on the memorial. According to her, the submissions ranged from descriptions of their loved ones, scripture and first-hand accounts of what happened.
These remembrances make the memorial even more striking to Earls because it “represents a lot of emotion and a lot of thoughts and a lot of lives.”
After the Bright Star Memorial was unveiled, people quietly walked around it, looking up as it shined.
“I’m happy that we are turning to art to comfort us,” said Ham as he was leaving the event.
He was relieved that so many people had come out to see the sculpture since he wasn’t sure how many people would be interested in remembering the shooting.
“I just didn’t know,” Ham said. “It could have been retraumatizing and people could have not wanted to be here, and the fact that they did hopefully signals that we're healing.”
According to the organizers behind the memorial, the unveiling is expected to be the last formal ceremony to commemorate the Odessa mass shooting. Now, the Bright Star Memorial will stand for years to come as a place where locals can sit with their feelings and heal at their own pace.
