Court dismisses wrongful termination lawsuit filed by former VB employee following mass shooting

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — A lawsuit filed by a former Virginia Beach City employee for wrongful termination following the 2019 mass shooting has been dismissed.

Beth Mann, who spent 16 years with the city, the last 13 in family services, filed the lawsuit last year after she says she was fired for comments she made just days following the May 31, 2019 shooting where a city engineer shot and killed 12 people and seriously hurt four others before being killed by police at Building 2.

Almost all victims were city employees.

Mann was fired from her job.  A couple days later she was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.  According to court records, her manager perceived Mann’s statements as a threat.

A Virginia Beach judge later dismissed the case against Mann.

Mann filed her complaint on June 17 and asked for $350,000.  It’s money her attorney said she lost after her job was taken and it’s what she believed the city owed her.

On Tuesday, the Eastern District Court of Virginia dismissed the lawsuit following the defendant’s objections, one which stated that Mann was “not speaking out on matters of public concerns, such as gun violence, but was instead airing individualized grievances.”