VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Virginia Beach City Council voted unanimously to appropriate $4.3 million to build the 5/31 Memorial. For the loved ones of the tragedy, they say it was a long-time coming, but worth it. VB mass shooting memorial will cost an additional $4.3 million "So excited, I really am," said Ervin Cox, brother of victim Ryan Keith Cox. "People told us it wouldn't happen, but look at God." Virginia Beach Mass Shooting Twelve people were killed May 31, 2019 at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center. Councilmember Michael Berlucchi is a liaison on the 5/31 Memorial Committee. He said voting for this measure was his duty. "I felt a sense of responsibility and a duty to support their work," Berlucci said. "It's a culmination of support for the committee's work and for the committee's work in the community, connecting with family members who lost their loved ones in the May 31 tragedy." Berlucchi said the committee included survivors, mental health professionals and architects among others. Cox is happy with the resolution. He lost his brother, Ryan Keith Cox, in the mass shooting. "Keith was one that never wanted attention," he said. "He wanted no attention. And to leave this world with all this attention and with the magnificent thing that he did in saving those women and then going out to save others and lost his life, that was the way Keith lived." Tara Reel worked with Ryan Keith Cox and was on the 5/31 Committee. She's looking forward to what the memorial will have to offer. "The heroes like Sergeant Ricardo, now there's a hero tree," Reel said. "There are so many elements of this that, for us, it tells the story. It tells the story of what happened here." It is her hope that this memorial lets loved ones of those who died know they are cared for and not forgotten. "I mean, this comes from the heart," Reel said. "And it was never about any of us. It was about the people that we knew, the people we lost, and the people that we thought someday might find solace at this place."