Some Las Vegas victims died with family, friends at side
Some died with family, some with friends. Others were with “framily” — friends they considered family — when they were shot and killed.
All shared the terror caused by a gunman spraying bullets into a crowd of concertgoers from a highrise hotel in Las Vegas, ending a day of dancing and smiles with bloody horror.
Here are stories about some of the 59 people who didn’t make it out alive.
‘Framily’ group missing a member
Nicol Kimura, 38, went to the festival with a group of seven men and women who call themselves “framily” — friends who are like family. She was fatally shot seconds after the gunfire began, said Ryan Miller, a businessman and pastor who is part of the group.
A Southern California native who lived in Placentia, Kimura’s survivors include her parents, a sister and the friends who were with her when she died. She was single and didn’t have children, but she was treated like family by the kids of group members, Miller said.
“She was a mom to all of our kids; they called her ‘auntie,’ ” he said. “I have two kids myself, and they were just absolutely devastated that they will not be able to see her again.”
Kimura worked in a tax office for Orange County and spent most weekends with her friends. No one else in the group was shot.
“She was just such an amazing woman and she was just such a light,” he said.
Youngest of four wanted to help others
Victim Michelle Vo, 32, was the youngest of four siblings in a family from the San Francisco Bay Area.
She worked hard at her job at New York Life insurance group in Pasadena, loved to cheer for the Golden State Warriors and was a pretty good golfer, said sister Cathy Vo Warren.
Warren remembered her sister as someone who always wanted to do good for those around her. “You’d need a poet to tell you everything,” said Cathy’s husband, Paul Warren.
Born in Southern California, Vo was attending the Las Vegas concert by herself and befriended Kody Robertson. The two were together when Vo was shot. Robertson later helped relatives find her.
“We’re very thankful that we met Kody,” Warren said. “We’re very thankful for him to be there with Michelle so that she wasn’t alone in her last moments.”
Father of six known for big heart, personality
John Phippen was a father of six who was always willing to lend an ear — or a cold beer — to a friend in need.
“He had a heart that was larger than life and a personality to match,” neighbour Leah Nagyivanyi wrote on an online fundraising page. “You felt like you knew him for years the first time you met him.”
Nagyivanyi is raising money through GoFundMe to help Phippen’s children pay for his funeral.
Phippen, 56, lived in Santa Clarita, California, and the youngest of his six children, a daughter, is just 14.
Mother-daughter trip turns deadly for one
Dana Gardner was attending the music festival with her daughter Kayla when the gunfire erupted. Gardner was shot and killed; her daughter was uninjured, according to KABC-TV in Los Angeles.
Gardner, 52, of Grand Terrace, California, was a deputy recorder in the San Bernardino County Assessor-Recorder’s Office. She’d held a job there since 1991, according to David Wert, a county spokesman.
She had two other children, sons Anthony and Ryan, and lived with her little white dog, Ellie.
Gardner loved the outdoors and travelling, filling her Facebook page with pictures from a trip to Puerto Rico and walks on beaches, or in redwood forests.
American flag memorial for ‘most patriotic person’ ever
Kurt Von Tillow was the “most patriotic person you’ve ever met,” brother-in-law Mark Carson told KCRA-TV in Sacramento, California.
Von Tillow, 55, was at Sunday’s concert with his wife, daughter and son-in law, sister and niece, the station reported. The sister and niece were injured and expected to survive, while the other three relatives were unharmed.
Von Tillow likely was smiling and enjoying the music with his family, sipping on a Coors Light and decked out in red, white and blue, Carson said.
A memorial including flowers and American flags has been set up outside Von Tillow’s home in Cameron Park, Calif.