COPLEY: When an unprecedented tragedy strikes a community as it did in Copley Township last month, when a man shot and killed seven people, the magnitude can be overwhelming. Even those who are charged with helping the victims can wonder how to begin to meet the needs of the survivors. Within a week of the Aug. 7 shooting in the small, close-knit Summit County community, a group of women began meeting with the help of Victim Assistance Executive Director the Rev. Bob Denton to discuss how best to protect and provide for those left in the wake of the tragedy.The weekly sessions continue. They assess the needs and brainstorm ways to wrap the survivors in a blanket of security.“We had to organize all the events. It was such a sad time,” said Copley Township trustee Helen Humphrys, who lives in the neighborhood and watched many of those who were slain grow up. Humphrys said they have managed to keep Michael Johnson, whose parents, brother and niece died in the attack, out of the reach of the reporters who swarmed the small neighborhood in the days after the shooting. Johnson, who evaded the killer, has yet to speak publicly about the events that day.“We are standing together. We are trying to stay strong,” Humphrys said.The group includes Democratic U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton and Sutton’s district director, Samantha Herd; Copley Township trustee Dale Panovich; Summit County Councilwoman Tamela Lee, advocates from the Summit County Victim Assistance program; victim advocates from the Children Who Witness Violence program at Akron Children’s Hospital; and Theresa Morris-Barton, an agent with Cutler Real Estate.A national, community-based organization working to foster positive youth development called Healthy Communities, Healthy Youth Copley-Fairlawn, features T-shirts, buttons, ribbons and wrist bands on its website at www.copley-fairlawnhchy.org/8-7-11.php to help raise money for the victims’ families. Accounts have been set up to collect donations to meet the financial needs of the Johnson, Dieter and Shambaugh families, who lost loved ones in the massacre.But Michael Hance terrorized and killed something else the day he entered the home of a young family he didn’t know in his search for another victim: He shattered the sense of security of a woman and her young children.Shooting witnessesMelonie Bagley, 28, a life resident of the community, huddled in the basement of the Shocalog Road home she shared with her mother. She tried to protect 11-year-old Scott Dieter and three of her four children. They listened as Hance entered the home and ferreted out their hiding place before killing Scott, just as he had shot and killed Scott’s father, Craig Dieter, moments before.Bagley held onto the little ones, telling the boys to follow her as she rushed up the steps to get out of the house.But her 9-year-old son, Dae’Shawn Henderson, didn’t leave. He stayed behind with Scott until the end, “because somebody had to stay with the little boy,” he later told his mother.“He doesn’t talk to me about it. He talks to his sister,” Bagley said last week from a small hotel room where she has been staying. Her daughter, 11-year-old Ebune, is receiving counseling through Children’s Hospital. She and Dae’Shawn have been meeting with victim advocates since the shootings.Her son cannot remember all the chilling details that occurred in the basement or how he got out of the house after watching Hance kill Scott.“Dae’Shawn, bless his heart, says he was teleported up,” Bagley said.That statement speaks to the boy’s mental state, a counselor has told Bagley.A next-door neighbor, whom the family knew only slightly, took Dae’Shawn inside after the ordeal so he could wash Scott’s blood off him. Since then, the neighbors have invited the family to their home for cookouts and to play.“It’s too bad we had to wait until something like that happened to get to know one another,” Bagley said.But going back to the scene of the crime has its risks, said Melissa Peace, manager of the Children Who Witness Violence program at Children’s Hospital, as it can trigger flashbacks.“They are called trauma reminders, by sights, by sounds — that sound familiar to you — or smells. Those trauma reminders can retrigger the trauma and you can’t get a good healing,” Peace said.Even 3-year-old Destany, who held onto her mother’s leg as Hance held a gun to the woman’s head and demanded to know where Scott was, has nightmares about the “bad man.”The group understands all wounds aren’t visible and is searching for solutions to Bagley’s housing dilemma. Copley trustees donated $5,000 from cable franchise fees to the Copley Outreach Center run by the Salvation Army. The funds, which are generally given to charitable organizations, are earmarked for short-term housing for the family. Unfortunately, the money is running out and the committee has begun a search for suitable long-term housing and the funding to help pay for it.Bagley, who has a degree in business from Brown Mackie College, does not have a job. She was diagnosed with narcolepsy 10 year ago and doesn’t drive.“That five minutes [Hance was in the home] just turned my life upside down,” she said. “But we’re still here, we are all together, and even though it’s upside down right now, I will bring it right side up.”Food stampsBagley and her children survive on food stamps, a few hundred dollars in monthly child support and Medicaid. She hopes new medication will get her medical condition under control so she can get and hold onto a job.She’s anxious and nervous since the shooting and rarely leaves the hotel room, even to window shop at her favorite stores, something she regularly enjoyed. People have been wonderful, she said: Besides paying for her housing, they also bring meals to the family every couple of days. A new friend, whom she knows only as Jennifer, even brought flowers “just to brighten up the place.”Keeping the youngsters sane in a small hotel room is nearly impossible. The older ones have begun “camping out” on air mattresses in the living room of Bagley’s mother’s home. “They won’t go upstairs or downstairs at my mom’s and the TV and the lights are on 24/7,” she said.Only Destany and 1-year-old Arrieona can stay in the cramped quarters for any amount of time. Dae’Shawn and Ebune visit most weeknights and stay at the hotel on weekends.Missy Klein, lead advocate of the case for Summit County Victim Assistance, said the current solution to the housing problem is not adequate, but they are trying to stretch the money as far as possible.“We have been working for all the families, but her resource level is so much less than the others,” Klein said.Sutton’s office expedited benefits for the family based on hardship with the Social Security Administration and made sure everything is in place for a disability claim Bagley had previously filed so her medical condition may be viewed more favorably, said Herd, Sutton’s district director. Meanwhile, the group that is trying to bring normalcy back to a neighborhood tormented by the shootings has set up a fund for housing for the Bagley family until it can qualify for AMHA housing in the Copley-Fairlawn school district.“We heard from others that continuity is important for [Dae’Shawn] to stay amidst his friends. It was why we tried to keep him at his school,” Sutton said.Bagley wants to thank the people who have helped her family in the past seven weeks and hopes she can soon find peace.She said she regrets not speaking with Scott Dieter’s mother, Beth, after she was released from the hospital and went home to Kentucky.“When she’s ready, whether its a month, a year or two years, I am more than willing to talk with her,” Bagley said. “It will be a blessing if she knows I did everything I could do to help him. I think it might give us both closure.”A fund has been set up for the Bagley family at KeyBank. Donations may be sent to the Bagley Housing Fund c/o Victim Assistance Program, P.O. Box 444, Akron, OH 44309.Kathy Antoniotti can be reached at 330-996-3565 or kantoniotti@thebeaconjournal.com.