Loved ones mourn shooting victims as policy debate rages
Tearful mourners hugged at a service to remember a student gunned down in
With a policy debate raging over what to do after
Here are the stories of some of the victims:
Her husband, teacher
In a post, de
Just minutes before the shooter entered the Walmart store in
For five hours after the shooting,
The two lived together in
Marquez, who was born in the Mexican state of
Ogaz said he and Marquez considered each other husband and wife, even though they never formally married.
LEO AND
When news broke that there had been a shooting at a Walmart store in
"We just thought they'd call us back," Campos' brother,
But then, he said, one of her relatives tracked their phones by GPS to inside the Walmart. Authorities later told them that 41-year-old
"Everybody says that as soon as you meet them, it's like you've known them forever," he said.
An account of self-sacrifice emerged Monday involving a grandfather who died in the mass shooting in
"He saved them," Melendez said. "He pushed them underneath." Johnson's wife was unavailable to describe the events firsthand.
"I hope she didn't get to see anything and that she's not affected later on," he said.
Basco told
"I mean you didn't even have to be there to talk to her. You could just look at how she was, how she acted, how she presented herself. She was an awesome lady," he said. "You see Margie, more or less, was the brains of the family."
Basco said he and Reckard knew there was something between them as soon as they met, and their life together was like something out of a fairy tale. Reckard was the strong one, he said, and she's "going to be missed a lot."
"We were gonna live together and die together," he said. "That was our plan."
RAUL AND
Raul and
Married for 60 years, 83-year-old Raul and 77-year-old Maria were rarely separated. With the man set for heart surgery on Monday, they had gone to Walmart to purchase airbeds for relatives who were expected to be in
Their oldest son,
"I tell myself, maybe it's the Lord's way of doing it," Flores said. "Maybe He knew my father wasn't going to make it during the surgery, and maybe He knew that if anything happened to my father, my mother would be destroyed. Maybe that's why He decided to take them together."
Both born in
The district said it had been in contact with his family and sent condolences.
"He told me my cousin had made eye contact with the shooter and they were in the bank and as soon as the shooter walked in, he grabbed my cousin. He says he saw the shooter shoot him," Chavez said.
The school district said counselors would be available, and a vigil was set for Monday night at the high school's football stadium.
His niece,
Benavides, who was born and raised in
"I spent my childhood waking up at their house, sitting out on the front porch with him on Sunday mornings, listening to the oldies on the radio," said Luna, who described him as kind and generous.
His nephew,
His wife,
A relative in
The relative said that on Saturday, Manzano and a friend had crossed the border to shop in
"From the baby's injuries, they said that more than likely my sister was trying to shield him," she said. "So when she got shot she was holding him and she fell on him, so that's why he broke some of his bones. So he pretty much lived because she gave her life."
Jordan, a mother of three, and
On Sunday night,
Friend Koteiba
"I love the guy," Azzam said in a phone interview from
Azzam said
"It makes you question your faith almost," said Azzam, who is Muslim. "But God didn't have a part in it. The hands of man altered my friend's life in a drastic way."
"Working numerous jobs at the same time to feed her family, life was hard. Through her hard work her children all became strong but extremely caring and compassionate and productive members of our community," he wrote.
Hallberg described his grandmother as praying daily, attending mass regularly at her
"She made the very best red beans and rice and red chili pozole. She always had a hot pot of fresh coffee for her visitors and a quick meal," he wrote.
The group was leaving a club when Fudge was shot, his brother said.
"Even though that was a tragic incident, I thank God that he got to be there with his son. And I'm saddened that it happened the way it happened but at least he was with family, you know, with the one he loved the most in this world," he said.
Fudge was known for wanting to assist others at the
"Every day, I remember him popping his head in and being, like, 'Hey,
THOMAS McNICHOLS: FATHER OF FOUR
Known by the nickname "TeeJay," 25-year-old
After McNichols got off work from a factory on Saturday, Johnson told the
McNichols' children, two girls and two boys, range in age from 2 to 8, she said.
"Everybody loved him. He was like a big kid," Johnson said. "When all of the movies come out - Batman, Black Panther - he would get all his nephews and take them to the movies."
A native of
"He was a very good guy," Khamis said.
A father of three, Saleh was originally from
He said Saleh's friends and family were thankful for the support they had received from the
"She was just a very positive person," Seaton told
Her LinkedIn profile said she received an associate's degree from
Brickhouse was also part of Two Good Girls, an event planning and catering business, according to her Facebook page.
Brown told the
"She was always supportive, always checked on me," he said. "She had a good heart and would do anything for anyone. She was overall a great person to know and be around."
A classmate remembered
"She always had a smile on her face," Brickler said.
"It's harder for me to wrap my head around why he would do this to someone, his sister."
Mourners consoled each other Tuesday at a mass for
Cumer was in the master of cancer care program at
The family released a statement through a relative saying they are "heartbroken by the loss of our Nicholas" and asking for privacy.
Cumer had been in
"He was well liked and respected by everyone on our team, and we all will miss him very much," the organization said in a statement. Cumer was a week away from completing his internship.
Derasha Merrett told the
"She was a wonderful mother, a wonderful person," Merrett said. "I have cried so much, I can't cry anymore."
Merrett said she and her cousin grew up in the same church and that Oglesby worked at her children's day care center.
"We all grew up in this little town," Merrett said. "We're all family."
Just days past his 30th birthday,
"Everyone loved Logan," she said. "He was a happy-go-lucky guy."
Turner said her son was out with a few friends when he was shot just outside a bar in
Turner had a degree from
Turner's mother said he had recently started working as a machinist at a company in
Stengle reported from
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