Editor’s note: Pacific Mayor Richard Hildreth responds to Friday night’s tragic shooting.

As I am sure you have heard by now. (Friday) night, while attending a late night event hosted by Valley Bible Church, Shiloh Drott was shot and killed in our community center. Shiloh was 21 years old, a graduate of Auburn Riverside High School and was universally loved by everyone in this community. He was known to mentor many young aspiring basketball players and was a great role model, even for adults.

It has been said that one reason more people were not hurt in this incident is because Shiloh pushed others to the ground so they would not be hit. That is who Shiloh was and will continue to be in our memories.

Three suspects were taken into custody and are currently being held at King County Jail in Seattle.

My main concern, at this point, is how people in our community deal with this. This is a traumatic event for everyone involved. For this reason, we had chaplains available all day Saturday and will be holding a town meeting from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the senior center where chaplains trained in “Critical Incident Stress Management” will be available. These chaplains are available for people who were there, friends and family and to community members who just need to talk about their fears.

Finally, I wanted to mention that it is almost universally agreed that we cannot allow this tragic event to damage our community. We have no plans on canceling late night or other planned community events. In fact, we may even be expanding some programs based on new volunteer groups stepping up to assist the city.

Shiloh was involved because he loved this community. He would not want us to turn back from his death, but move forward. Let us unite in his memory to reach out to all children and all members of our community. Let us work together in his memory to bring this community together and follow his values of doing what we can to make this world a better place.

– Rich Hildreth, Mayor, City of Pacific