The victims of the San Bernardino shooting are being remembered by loved ones
AS police try to work out the motive behind such a senseless loss of life, the 14 victims of the San Bernardino massacre are being remembered.
THE 14 victims of the mass shooting in San Bernardino are being remembered by loved ones with a candelit vigil.
Friends and family have also been posting messages of support and sharing memories on social media to honour the victims who were gunned down. Numerous Gofundme pages have also been set up to raise funds for the families left behind.
The Facebook page for Nicholas Thalasinos, one of the victims, as his wife confirmed here, has seen an outpouring of mournful comments from friends and family.
A friend confirmed to Philly.com that Thalasinos had worked for a time as a health inspector in Philadelphia before moving to California to “do the same work.” According to the same report, Thalasinos was the father of two adult sons.
Friends recalled Thalasinos’ devotion to his religion and to Israel, sharing photographs of themselves with him.
Thalasinos alleged that he received a death threat on Facebook on December 2 from a man named Med Ali Zarouk. According to a post from Thalasinos, Zarouk messaged him to say, in part, “soon you ll get your ass kicked, you will die and never see Israel as country believe me never.”
Mashable spoke with Zarouk via Facebook and he denied having any involvement in the shooting and said he did not even know anyone in the area.
Thalasinos’ Facebook page was filled with condemnations of Muslims and impassioned screeds against jihadist terror.
His wife said she “would not be surprised” if her husband was the one the shooter, Syed Farook, got into an argument with at the Christmas party.
The LA Times reported that 42-year-old Larry Kaufman was another victim. He was dropped to work by his boyfriend Ryan Reyes who said he was cheerful that morning.
Kaufman ran the coffee shop in building 3 at the Inland Regional Center, training the developmentally disabled clients who worked there.
The last text message Reyes received from Kaufman was at 10:37am and was a picture of a friend he had met at a comic book conference.
Around an hour later, Reyes received a text from his sister: “Hey Ry does Daniel work at the Regional Center in Sb? Check the news.”
Reyes, 32, called his boyfriend repeatedly but kept getting sent to voicemail.
“Call me ASAP!” he texted. There was no reply.
Sadly Reyes was told that Kaufman had been shot but was alive, only to learn later on that he had died reported the LA times.
Other victims have been identified as Damian Meins, a physical education teacher at St. Catherine’s School in Riverside, and who his boss called a bright light” that had been “extinguished from our world in a most tragic way.” He was married to his high school sweetheart and had two daughters reported Mashable.
Mike Wetzel, a supervising environmental health specialist with San Bernardino County and a father of six also lost his life. “So many prayers needed,” Wetzel’s wife Renee wrote in a Facebook post. “My husband was in the meeting where the shooting happened. I have not been able to get in touch with him. Please please pray that he is OK.”
Together, the couple had a baby girl.
Speaking to FOX Los Angeles, Mike’s ex wife and mother of three of his children, Amy Wetzel called it the worst day of her life.
“Not knowing how to tell you kids. that daddy’s not coming home. trying to say it the right way, because I know how I heard it, and knowing that those words are going to be stuck forever in their brain. That was the hard part,” she told Fox.
“He’s the father of my babies. We may not have always seen eye to eye, but he gave me three beautiful kids. He gave me eight years of married and lots of memories. When we met, he was the first guy that was raised right. that had good beliefs, that came from a good background and truly cared, he was a married.”
Sierra Clayborn who died in the violence had been a registered environmental health specialist with Sand Bernardino County since January 2013, reported Mashable and according to her LinkedIn profile.
A resident of Ontario, California, Clayborn was a graduate of the University of California-Riverside, graduating in 2010 with a Bachelors of Science, Biochemistry, with a “medical emphasis.”
Robert Adams, 40, was also gunned down in the attack reported the LA Times.
He grew up in the Inland Empire and married his high school sweetheart, Summer, according to Jenni Kosse, a family friend.
Adams was a father to 20-month-old Savannah.
“When you saw the three of them together, you just wanted to jump in the middle and think, ‘I want to have fun too,” Kosse said.
Bennetta Bet-Badal, 46, came to America with her family from Iran after the Iranian Revolution at the age of 18.
She had three children aged 10, 12 and 15 and was married to her police officer husband.
She worked as health inspector for the San Bernardino County department of public health.
“She loved her job, her community, and her country,” according to a fundraising web page set up for her family.
“Her greatest love, however, was for her husband, her children, and her large extended family.”
Harry Bowman, 46, who lost his life was described as an intelligent man who loved his two daughters, ages 15 and 11, according to family member Bill Kraft and reported by the LA Times.
“Death at its best is hard to take. This type of death is extremely hard to take, especially when you have young children,” said Kraft. “There is no way you are going to make them understand.”
Shannon Johnson, 45, was a health inspector for San Bernardino County, according to a statement by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
He lived with his girlfriend, Mandy Pfifer, a longtime member of Garcetti’s Crisis Response Team, according to the statement.
“We offer our full support to Mandy in this unimaginably difficult time, and I send my deepest condolences to Shannon’s family and all who are grieving loved ones in the aftermath of this senseless tragedy,” Garcetti said.
Yvette Velasco, 27, was also killed in the mass shooting.
One of Robert and Marie Velasco’s four daughters, she was “full of life and loved by all who knew her,” according to a statement issued by her family.
“We are devastated about what happened,” the family statement said, “and are still processing this nightmare.”
Victim Juan Espinoza worked as an inspector for the county health department. Espinoza is survived by his wife, a daughter and a son.
American footballer, Nat Berhe who plays for the Giants said on Twitter that his cousin was killed in the massacre. Issac Amanios, 60, who worked for the county health department is survived by his wife and three adult children a family member told the LA Times.
He was “an amazing father, brother, an amazing everything” the person who didn’t want to be named said.
Just got word that one of my cousins was among the 14 killed yesterday, I'm so sick right now.
— Nat Berhe (@NatBerhe) December 3, 2015The true terror is that this keeps happening. I still can't believe it. Take a moment to think of the families hurting right now.
— Nat Berhe (@NatBerhe) December 3, 2015Other victims include Tin Nguyen, 31, and Aurora Godoy, 26.
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