PORT ANGELES — Giant cards of condolence for residents of Chattanooga, Tenn., continued to gather signatures at City Hall on Wednesday, with plans to take them to that night’s Concert on the Pier.
Signers had filled up two banners and started on a third, with two fresh messages bound for the concert as of Wednesday afternoon.
“It’s a very small thing to sign the card,” said Lesley Robertson, “but people feel very strongly about being able to do something.”
Revitalize PA
Robertson is the founder of Revitalize Port Angeles, which responded to Port Angeles residents’ desire to share Chattanooga’s sorrow over the slaying of four Marines and a sailor a week ago.
After conferring with Mayor Dan Di Giulio, who secured the support of City Council members, Robertson posted the card on a table outside the city manager’s office in City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
When to sign
It will remain available for signatures from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday.
Port Angeles and Chattanooga forged a special bond last spring when they faced off in the “Best Town Ever” online contest held by Outside magazine.
After beating such cities as Santa Barbara, Calif.; Bainbridge Island; Glenwood Springs, Colo.; Flagstaff, Ariz.; and Bar Harbor, Maine, Port Angeles bowed to Chattanooga, 67,432 votes to 62,130 (52 percent to 48 percent).
The final figures didn’t reflect the communities’ comparative sizes: 19,000 residents of Port Angeles; 170,000 people living in Chattanooga.
Tennessee city
The Chattanooga Times Free Press on Wednesday posted Peninsula Daily News photographs of Port Angeles resident Debbie Hunt signing the card and of firefighters and emergency medical technicians from the city’s fire department and Clallam County Fire District No. 2 displaying the condolence banner.
Meanwhile, the FBI called the Chattanooga shooter, Muhammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, a “homegrown, violent, and extremist” individual who acted on his own.
The FBI has assigned 700 to 1,000 agents to investigate the shooting, including 250 in Chattanooga, according to ABC News.
The agency said a Chattanooga police car had been pursuing Abdulazeez after he fired shots while driving by a military recruitment center July 16.
He then drove to a Navy Operational Support Center building, where he fatally shot the Marines and sailor before he was killed in a shootout with police.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
