Pezz453/iStock(DAYTON, Ohio) — The family and friends of the victims in the El Paso and Dayton shootings are grieving their loved ones who were among those shot to death over the weekend.
Nearly 1,600 miles separate the two cities targeted by two gunmen wielding assault-style rifles, but now residents of both shattered communities share in the heartbreak caused by mass shootings on consecutive days in crowded public places.
Among the 31 victims killed in the twin massacres were an El Paso mother and father who sacrificed their lives shielding their 3-month-old son from gunfire inside a Walmart store, and the 20-year-old woman described by a friend as “wonderful” who was gunned down on a street in Dayton’s popular Oregon District, allegedly by her own brother.
Here is a list of victims killed in the back-to-back shooting, 22 in El Paso and nine in Dayton:
Megan Betts, 22
Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said Megan Betts was among the first victims shot to death.
“It seems to just defy believability that he would shoot his own sister, but it’s also hard to believe that he didn’t recognize that was his sister. So we just don’t know,” Biehl said Monday.
Dana Raber, 20, of Bellbrook, said she was a friend of Megan Betts when they were both high school students.
“She was wonderful,” Raber told reporters gathered near the Betts family home in Bellbrook on Sunday. “She was different in a very good way. That’s why we got along, I suppose. She’s very sweet, had her own opinions and was loud and kind in a way that her brother was quiet and stayed more to himself.”
Raber said she was unaware of any friction between Megan and Connor Betts.
“They are a family I admired, and I don’t know how they’re going to get through this. They were always very nice to me,” Raber said.
Derrick Fudge, 57
Fudge’s sister Twyla Southall told ABC station WSYX-TV that she saw her brother just hours before the shooting at a cookout on Saturday.
“I’m glad I got to see him in a fun, positive environment. I’m sad that we won’t get to see him like that again,” Southall said.
Southall said that her nephew and niece, who were with Fudge at the time of the shooting, escaped unharmed.
She said that her nephew and Fudge’s fiancee were getting food at a taco truck when they first saw the shooter. Fudge was allegedly one of the first people shot.
“They said they saw the man walking towards them with a mask on. My nephew thought, you know, it looked weird, but…he actually thought it was someone clowning, you know, just acting crazy,” Southall told WSYX.
“You can’t unlive that,” she said of her nephew seeing his father injured in front of him. “Once you’ve experienced it and seen it and held them in your hands, and they’re breathing their last breath.”
Lois Oglesby, 27
Oglesby’s friend Airiana Camp told ABC News that Oglesby was a mother of two girls, and the type of person who would do anything to help others.
“She was real good to everybody,” Camp said. “She’s really known through the city. She was real cool, laid back.”
Logan Turner, 30
Turner’s mother, Danita Turner, spoke to the Dayton News, calling him “the world’s best son.”
“Everyone loved Logan. He was a happy-go-lucky guy,” she told the local newspaper.
One of the women who tried to help Turner at the scene said that she was by his side when he took his last breath.
“It was me and a girl and a guy took over, and he did the chest compressions,” said Holly Redman, who helped at the scene because she was CPR-certified. “I let her hold the wound, and then I just breathed in his breath.”
“I just want his parents to know that we did everything possible to save him, like everything,” Redman said on “Good Morning America.”
“[He] had three people around him, and I was there when he took his last breath. It’s so hard,” Redman said before breaking down in tears.
Nicholas Cumer, 25
Andy Coulter, a news videographer, confirmed that his cousin’s son, Nicholas Cumer, died in the shooting.
Coulter said that Cumer graduated from Washington High School in 2012 and had since graduated from St. Francis University in Pennsylvania.
St. Francis University put out a statement confirming that Cumer graduated from the school’s undergraduate program and was a current graduate student in the Master of Cancer Care program at the time of the shooting.
“We join the nation in mourning Nicholas, alongside all of the victims of this tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with their family and friends during this most difficult time,” the university’s president, Fr. Malachi, wrote in the statement.
The letter notes that Cumer was in Dayton for the summer, working as an intern with the Maple Tree Cancer Alliance.
“Just last week, we offered him a full-time position with us to run one of our new offices,” Maple Tree Cancer Alliance announced in an update on their Facebook page after the shooting.
The organization noted that three of their trainers were shot in Dayton. While two are expected “to make a full recovery,” they are “absolutely heartbroken” to confirm Cumer’s death.
“Nick is remembered for his hard work and dedication to Maple Tree. He loved his patients and served them well, with a loving and caring spirit. He continuously went above and beyond our expectations and worked with a high level of excellence. He was well-liked and respected by everyone on our team, and we all will miss him very much,” the Maple Tree Cancer Alliance statement reads.
Thomas McNichols, 25
Beatrice Warren-Curtis, 36
Saeed Saleh, 38
Monica Brickhouse, 39
Those killed in the massacre at the El Paso Walmart were:
Jordon and Andre Anchondo
Jordon and Andre Anchondo were both shot to death inside the El Paso Walmart shielding their 3-month-old baby, Paul, family members told ABC News.
Police said they found the baby under his 25-year-old mother’s body, and covered in her blood.
Jordon Anchrondo’s aunt, Liz Terry of Sacramento, told ABC News anchor David Muir that she was not surprised her niece and 24-year-old nephew gave their lives to protect their baby. Terry said she has learned that while Jordon was shielding little Paul, Andre threw his body over his wife in an attempt to protect her.
“She was the light of our family, full of heart,” Terry said of Jordon.
She said the couple is survived by two other daughters, one 18 months old and the other 5-years old.
“Our primary goal is the children to stay together, for us to remind them who they are and who their parents were,” Terry said.
Javier Rodriguez
Javier Rodriguez was just 15, a student at Horizon High School in El Paso. He was standing in line at a bank inside the El Paso Walmart about to open a checking and savings account when he was shot in the head and killed, his uncle, Octavio Lizarde, who witnessed his nephew being killed, told ABC News.
Lizarde, who suffered a gunshot to the foot, said Javier was like his son and that they did everything together.
“It’s hard because he was like my son. I was always there for him when he needed it — and it hurts,” Lizarde said from his hospital bed. “Just those images that I saw. I really wish I didn’t see them. I close my eyes. I still see them. I see them open. I see everything…Everybody knows what he meant to me.”
He said his nephew would have turned 16 in November.
Juan Valazquez
Juan Valazquez and his wife were both shot outside the El Paso Walmart when they went there Saturday morning to return merchandise, their son, Alvaro Mena, told ABC News.
The 78-year-old Valazquez suffered devastating wounds and died in a hospital in El Paso on Monday. Mena said his mother is expected to survive.
Mena said his family is “devastated” by the loss of his father, and relatives are now afraid for their own lives after police said the suspect told investigators his motive was to kill Mexicans.
“We are afraid to go out,” Mena said. “We are afraid to go out into the streets because we feel like we are being hunted because of skin color.”
Angie Englisbee
Angie Englisbee was described by her family as a strong woman with a big heart, who showered her relatives with love and affection. The 86-year-old woman, who was killed in the shooting at the El Paso Walmart while standing in the checkout line, also loved the Dallas Cowboys, her relatives said.
Englisbee was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and moved to El Paso when she got married, relatives said.
“I hope that maybe someone next to her held her hand, so she wasn’t afraid,” said Englisbee’s niece, Karla Moya-Crites, told ABC affiliate station KOAT-TV in Santa Fe. “I just feel bad because she’s 86 years old and she should’ve been dead with natural causes and instead just a senseless death.”
Leonard and Maribel Campos
Leonard “Leo” Campos and his wife, Maribel, were shot to death at the El Paso Walmart and are survived by four adult children, their relatives said.
“They were kind-hearted people…always willing to take their shirt off their backs for anyone [who] needed the help.. they loved life, going to the casino, spending time with their grandbabies,” a relative of the couple told ABC affiliate station KVIA-TV in El Paso.
Leo Campos, 41, grew up in Pharr, Texas, and was a standout athlete at Pharr-San Juan-Alamo High School, where he graduated in 1996, according to school officials.
“We are sad to learn that one of our own was a victim of the El Paso shooting,” PSJA School Board President Jesse Zambrano said in a statement. “Leo Campos was a great athlete and friend to many during his time at PSJA High. He was a goalie for the soccer team and a kicker for the football team. Leo was well-liked and a role model to many athletes that looked up to him, including me.”
The couple is survived by four children and four grandchildren, relatives said.
David Johnson
David Johnson, 63, was at the El Paso Walmart with his wife, Kathy, and their 9-year-old granddaughter, Katie, doing back-to-school shopping when he was killed in the rampage, relatives said.
Johnson’s niece, Mia Madera, told KVIA that her uncle was shot three times while he was protecting his wife and grandchild.
Dominic Patridge, Johnson’s nephew, called Johnson “the kindest and most giving individual I’ve ever known.”
“My uncle worked long hours during the week, so he made it a point to dedicate the weekends to his family,” Partridge said in a statement.
Arturo Benavides
Arturo Benavides, 60, was an Amry veteran who worked as a bus driver in El Paso, his family said.
Benavides was shopping at the Walmart with his wife, Patricia, when he was gunned down at the self-checkout stand, relatives said.
“We hope to honor his life and that people remember him for the strong-willed and loving person he was,” his niece, Jacklin Lunahe, told KIVA-TV.
Margie Rickard
Margie Reckard, 63, was described by her common-law husband, Antonio Basco, as “an angel.”
The couple had been together 22 years when Reckard was killed Saturday at the Walmart in San Antonio.
“When I met her she was an angel and she still is,” Basco told reporters. “I was supposed to be the strong one but I found out I’m the weak one, and she’s going to be missed a lot.”
Alexander Gerhard Hoffman
Alexander Gerhard Hoffman, 66, a citizen of Germany, was killed in the Walmart massacre, authorities said.
Sarah Esther Regaldo and Adolfo Cerros Hernandez
Sarah Esther Regaldo, 66, and her husband, Aldolfo Cerros Hernandez, 68, were among eight Mexican nationals killed at the Walmart, according to Mexican authorities.
The couple’s granddaughter, Vielka Yu, posted a picture of them on Facebook with a note saying, “I don’t know if there is heaven or not … but if yes, I hope you are as comfortable and happy as here.”
Gloria Irma Marquez
Gloria Irma Marquez, 61, was also a Mexican national, authorities said. She was gunned down while shopping at the El Paso Walmart.
“Gloria was a dedicated mother, grandmother and friend,” Marquez’s niece, Brianna Klein, wrote in a GoFundMe account she created to raise money for her aunt’s funeral.
Elsa Mendoza de la Mora
Elsa Mendoza de la Mora, 57, was a special education teacher in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. She was among the first victims killed in the massacre at the Walmart, shot as she waiting in the parking lot with her husband and son, officials said.
Other victims killed in the El Paso shooting were identified as:
Luis Alfonso Juarez, 90, a U.S. citizen from El Paso.
María Eugenia Legarreta Rothe, 58, of Chihuahua, Mexico.
Maria Flores, 77, a U.S. citizen from El Paso.
Raul Flores, 77, a U.S. citizen from El Paso.
Ivan Hilierto Manzano, 46 of Juarez.
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