Memorial Bench Installed Near Murphy Canyon Site of May 2025 Cessna Citation II Crash That Killed Six

A memorial bench honoring the six people killed in a May 2025 business jet crash has been installed in the Murphy Canyon neighborhood of San Diego, California, nearly a year and a half after the accident. Liberty Military Housing put the bench in place on Thursday, November 5, near the Armed Services YMCA, with input from the victims' loved ones.

The aircraft, a Cessna Citation II piloted by Dave Shapiro, co-founder of Sound Talent Group, struck power lines and a light pole before crashing into a military housing neighborhood in the middle of the night on May 22, 2025. All six people aboard were killed: Emma Huke, Kendall Fortner, Celina Kenyon, Daniel Williams, Dominic Damian and Shapiro. Huke, a booking associate for Sound Talent Group, was returning home from New Jersey. The crash damaged more than 10 homes and left about eight people on the ground injured.

Maddie Goff, a close friend of Huke, said having a dedicated place to remember those lost has brought her comfort, noting that family members had previously left flowers around the neighborhood without a designated place to go. Allison Garner, military relations director for the Armed Services YMCA, said the bench gives both the victims' families and the affected community a place to sit, reflect and remember.

In a statement, Allison and Tim Huke thanked the military housing team for partnering on the tribute and said they hope the bench offers a place to leave flowers, candles and keepsakes. The dedication falls in the same week as National Bee Kind Day, which Emma Huke's family declared in her honor on her birthday, Tuesday, November 10. The family also started a nonprofit aimed at encouraging random acts of kindness in her memory.

A private jet crash into a residential area leaves two kinds of aftermath. One is the formal process of determining cause, which runs on the investigators' schedule. The other is the neighborhood's own, which runs for years: damaged homes, injured residents, and a place where families and neighbors can gather. The bench belongs to the second kind, and it was arranged by a housing operator and a community organization rather than by anyone in aviation.

For business aviation, the point is about where operations touch the public. Flights that end in a populated neighborhood put local landlords, charities and residents into the story, and the memory of the event is held by those groups long after trade coverage has moved on. How a segment is perceived in the communities beneath its approach paths is shaped as much by this durable ground-level record as by anything in the formal findings.

The cause of the May 22, 2025 crash is under investigation, and no finding on it should be inferred from the dedication. The next aviation-side milestone to watch is whatever the investigating authorities publish; the memorial itself changes nothing in that process.