UCSC grad and Gabrielle Giffords staff member to be honored in the US Capitol

Gabriel Zimmerman, the first Congressional staff member to be murdered while in the line of duty, will have a placed named after him in the Capitol, the Gabriel Zimmerman Meeting Room.

Zimmerman was killed in the January 8 shooting in Tucson, Arizona, that took the lives of six people and injured thirteen others, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

“The ‘Gabriel Zimmerman Meeting Room’ will honor the legacy of Gabriel Zimmerman and the thousands of congressional staffer that work in our communities across the country,” said Congressman Sam Farr, who co-authored the bipartisan resolution to honor Zimmerman. “By all accounts Gabe was a person dedicated to making a difference in the lives of the people around him, and now that spirit will be echoed by the people who visit this room and the staffer that use it everyday.”

Zimmerman graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 2002, where a scholarship fund has also been established in his honor to celebrate his dedication to public service. The resolution to name the Gabriel Zimmerman Meeting Room was approved unanimously.