Loved ones take time to grieve

Tuesday, April 11, 2000 | 9:49 a.m.

Victim's rights week calendar of events

An Agency Fair will be held from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. today in the Family Court atrium.

For more information, call 455-4204.

Larry McGee was getting ready to celebrate his wife's birthday when he received a call to come and identify the body of his 21-year-old son who was shot in a parking lot at a local roller rink.

His son mistakenly thought the young man in front of him was a friend when he ran up to him and tapped him on the back. The man turned around and shot him twice in the chest and once in the stomach.

Nearly five years later the McGees are still working through their grief.

Wearing blue sashes with their son's name written on them, the couple and their 4-year-old granddaughter joined dozens of families on the steps of the Clark County Courthouse Monday for the "Rainbow of Remembrance," the first of several events held in honor of National Crime Victims' Rights week, April 9-15.

"We never thought it would happen to us," Sherill McGee as she handed her granddaughter a balloon with a written message inside. "I think everybody thinks that." The Nevada Attorney General's Office reports that 37 million Americans are touched by crime each year and more than 9 million fall prey to some form of violence.

In support of Southern Nevada victims, a series of events will be held this week including a grief and loss seminar and a picnic for families of murder victims.

Victims' Rights week is a way to remember the families and friends who were left behind, Pat Thacker, coordinator for the county's Sexual Abuse Investigative Team, said. It sends a message to the community as a whole about the impact crime has on survivors, she said.

The week also draws attention to available resource for victims. "People don't have to deal with this alone," Thacker said.

Without the help of the support group, Families of Murder Victims, the McGees say they never would have survived the death of their son. While their son's killer is serving a 15-year-prison sentence, the McGee family is serving a lifetime of grief. Their granddaughter -- the daughter of their late son -- was 4 months old when her father was shot.

"If we didn't have someone to help us through, we wouldn't have made it," Sherill McGee said of the support group. "They're there for you any time you need them. They even showed up at my son's funeral."

Families comforted each other through their tears as a children's group performed Bette Midler's song "The Wind Beneath My Wings."

Representatives of the CASA program, Child Protective Services the Attorney General's Office and the District Attorney's Office spoke briefly at the half-hour event.

Kristen Peterson covers community news for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-2317 or by e-mail at kristen@lasvegassun.com.