Thursday, Nov. 14, marks the five-year anniversary of the Saugus High School Shooting, where three students were injured and two were killed by a student who then took his own life.

On the morning of Nov. 14, 2019, the landscape of the Santa Clarita community was “forever changed” when 16-year-old Nathaniel Berhow walked into the quad of Saugus High School, pulled a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun from his backpack, and opened fire, according to officials with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD).

Two students, 15-year-old Gracie Muehlberger and 14-year-old Dominic Blackwell, were killed as a result of the shooting.

“(Five) long and painful years since our beautiful children – Gracie Anne Muehlberger and Dominic Michael Blackwell – were ripped from our arms and a community was rocked forever,” read a statement from The GracieStrong Foundation, organized by Muehlberger’s family Thursday morning.  We thank all of you for your continued love and support as we continue to heal – though the pain is still so raw and real and will never go away.”

Three other students were injured before Berhow turned the gun on himself. He died the next day at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital with his mother at his side, according to a statement issued by the LASD at the time.

The Santa Clarita Valley community would rally around the Blackwell and Muehlberger families in the following weeks and months.

“She was able to make a larger impact on more people and more communities than most of us will do in a lifetime,” Bryan Muehlberger, father of Gracie, said in a previous KHTS article.

However, nothing could replace the insurmountable loss that they had suffered, as they had become yet another family in a long list of those who have lost their children to tragic school shootings.

On June 4, 2021, the Santa Clarita City Council unveiled two 11-foot obelisks, with murals on each side made from mosaic tiles meant to memorialize 15-year-old Gracie and 14-year-old Dominic.

On May 31, 2023, the Saugus Class Of 2023 held their graduation ceremony. Three empty chairs stood in a packed stadium. Two chairs were meant for Blackwell and Muehlberger, both receiving honorary degrees.

Today, the survivors of the shooting seek to achieve more, including Mia Tretta, Blackwell’s best friend. Tretta was also injured in the shooting and has gone on to be a gun violence prevention advocate.

“Five years ago today we went to school smiling. We were carefree, and hopeful, and then we were shot. Not a day goes by that I don’t fight for you, Dominic. Someday I’ll see you again and I’ll tell you how we changed the world, in your honor,” Tretta said in a post on the site formerly known as Twitter Thursday.

Click here for more information on the Gracie Strong Foundation and the Dominic Michael Blackwell Foundation.

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