Ten years from now, I want people to drive by and remember their names.
Kevin Bate will soon begin portraits on this McCallie Avenue wall of the four Marines and one Sailor who were killed in an attack last month.
Kevin Bate works to install a piece of artwork at the Chattanooga Public Library on Tuesday. He will soon begin portraits of the four Marines and one sailor who were killed in an attack last month.Local artist Kevin Bate refuses to say the name of the man who drew national attention after killing five servicemen in Chattanooga on July 16. It’s the victims he wants the world to remember, not their assailant.
Bate will memorialize the slain servicemen in a large mural he’ll paint on a wall that borders McCallie Avenue. They are the heroes, he said Tuesday.
“Ten years from now, I want people to drive by and remember their names – Holmquist and Sullivan and Wells and Wyatt and Smith,” Bate said. “They weren’t in a war zone, but they wore the uniform and they were there for us. I want those names remembered.”
Two-time Purple Heart recipient Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan, National Defense Service Medal recipient Lance Cpl. Squire K. “Skip” Wells, Sgt. Carson Holmquist and Staff Sgt. David Wyatt were the four Marines shot July 16 when Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire at two military centers. Abdulazeez also shot U.S. Navy Petty Officer Randall Smith, who died of his wounds two days after the shootings.