Santa Fe victims recalled as full-hearted heroes
Friends and family honor four lost in shooting at funerals with tales of their strong character
They were celebrated as heroes, as young men just starting their lives and as a grandmother who spent hers caring for others, as people who exemplified goodness in the face of evil — and mourned by families and friends, by classmates and co-workers, by strangers who felt moved to offer support.
Christian Riley Garcia, a 15-year-old who dreamed of enlisting in the Army and died trying to save fellow Santa Fe High School students from gunfire.
Christopher Jake Stone, a 17-year-old football player and Ultimate Frisbee athlete known for his sweet, loving personality.
Cynthia Tisdale, a substitute teacher who returned to work after her husband of 46 years was diagnosed with a fatal lung disease, and would have turned 64 on Friday.
Aaron Kyle McLeod, a 15-year-old movie buff and PlayStation gamer who delighted in a good tennis match with his sister.
A week after a 17year-old gunman opened fire in Santa Fe High School, killing 10 people — including Tisdale and the three teenagers — and wounding 13 others, the four were remembered at visitations and funeral services Thursday and Friday. Their lives and last acts commemorated with tears and laughter, anecdotes and appreciations.
Tisdale, who raised three children and a stepdaughter and had 11 grandchildren, tried to shelter students as they dodged gunfire in the art room, while Garcia and Stone held a door shut in the school’s art hallway, allowing others to escape. The gunman fired through the door, striking and killing Garcia.
Christian Riley Garcia
Garcia was lauded as a hero and laid to rest Friday with military honors at a service that drew hundreds to Crosby Church. It was filled with nods to the high school freshman’s patriotism, love of God and devotion to family.
An honor guard from Crosby High School’s JROTC presented his mother, Shannan Claussen, with a U.S. flag, which had been tucked into his casket. As the melancholy strains of “Taps” wafted through the church, the guard in dress uniforms saluted Claussen.
A slideshow playing throughout the service showed flashes of Garcia’s brief life: As a baby, cooing and cuddling with his mom. As a toddler in baggy shorts and sitting on a red, white and blue background. As a little boy building a snowman and meeting Santa Claus. As a young man on hunting trips, embracing his little sister, posing in his football uniform.
In one photo, displayed by his casket, Garcia is in a tie and button-down shirt, grinning at the camera, showing off his braces.
“In every meaning of the word, he truly was heroic,” said Pastor Keenan Smith, who had known Garcia most of his life and baptized him five years ago. “In action and in deed, he was courageous in the face of evil. He didn’t flinch.”
Garcia had moved to Santa Fe from Crosby less than two months ago because his family was building a home there.
Recently, he posed for a picture wearing sunglasses and a blue Nike T-shirt, next to a wooden beam in what would have been his room in his family’s new home. On the wood, Riley scrawled a passage from the Bible.
“He said, ‘Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth,’” he wrote.
“He showed bravery far beyond his years. He took it upon himself to get everyone out first, making himself last,” the family said in an obituary in the funeral program. “He held his ground and held the door to give others a chance to get out. He was a HERO, he is our HERO.”
In Smith’s eulogy, Garcia was remembered as someone who was “so full of life. He loved so dearly and was loved so dearly and so deeply.”
Next to his coffin, tables held photographs and mementos of the items he treasured: his green-and-gold Santa Fe football jersey emblazoned with the number 65, a football, a mounted deer. Songs playing in the background recalled his strong character and unshakeable faith.
But Smith reminded those present that Garcia was also a teenager who sometimes balked at doing homework and loved board games, the outdoors and cake. He had just gotten his boating license and relished riding four-wheelers and Jet Skis. He doted on his little sister, Cadence, for whom he would do anything, including donning a plastic Samurai sword and costume to play guard to her princess.
“How he loved her,” Smith said, looking down at the little girl with a bow in her hair. “How she loves him.”
It came as no surprise, Smith said, that Garcia would have tried to save his classmates, even at the cost of his own life.
“Riley wasn’t fearful,” Smith said. “Riley was unafraid — in life or death — to take a stand.”
Cynthia Tisdale
At League City’s Bay Area Church, mourners paid tribute to Tisdale, described by her son as “a person who lived to help those in need.”
Recie Tisdale is a League City police detective, and many in attendance at the sprawling church were law enforcement. Police cars lined the parking lot.
In the service, which was closed to reporters, Tisdale’s stepdaughter’s husband recalled how she outfitted their apartment when they moved to Santa Fe years ago. League City police detective John Griffith, who works with Tisdale’s son, read letters from the family.
His voice cracked when he read what his colleague wrote: “I wish I could have been there the day you needed me.”
After the service, her casket, adorned with pink and yellow roses and lilies, was taken to the Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Dickinson for a private burial. Ribbons in green, for the school color, adorned the pine trees.
Tisdale, who was born in Thibodaux, La., stayed home and raised her children while her husband worked and ministered at a local Baptist church. Deeply religious, she attended First Baptist Church in Webster and later worked various jobs until her husband started his own pest control business.
Throughout her life, Tisdale labored in love. She cared for a granddaughter during a troublesome time, taking over “the role of mom,” the woman said on Twitter. “She has been my everything since I was a baby. ... I love you grammy.”
After Tisdale’s husband, William Recie Tisdale Sr., was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a degenerative condition that scars the lungs, she returned to work in the Santa Fe Independent School District and as a waitress at an Italian restaurant.
After a granddaughter was injured, Tisdale took her to weekly physical therapy appointments. “Her support, love, and encouragement are part of the reason her granddaughter is walking again,” her family said in her obituary.
She loved teaching as much as students adored her.
“You impacted my life,” one wrote on Twitter. “My light and favorite person to talk to. I felt safe with you and I cannot explain how much I am going to miss your presence.”
In December, her husband was given 18 months to live but was denied a lung transplant. The family found an experimental stem cell treatment and set up a GoFundMe campaign at www.gofundme.com/lungstem-cell-treatment-for-ipf.
By May 18, the campaign had raised only $1,215 — about $11,000 short of its goal. Then, as news spread of the shooting, strangers from across the nation and the world wanted to help. Friday, nearly $144,600 had been raised. Enough for the stem cell treatment — and perhaps a lung transplant.
“We are still in such disbelief that anything good can come out of such a horrific event,” Recie Tisdale wrote on the site. “My mom always made good come out of bad situations though and this is no different for her.”
Christopher Jake Stone
Later Friday, scores of people gathered at Clear Creek Community Church in League City to pay their respects to Stone, a Santa Fe High School junior and brother to two.
Stone was “the life of the party” and wanted to become a plant operator after his graduation, his sister Mercedes told the Houston Chronicle a day after her brother’s death.
An obituary described Stone as an avid PlayStation 4 player, member of the junior varsity football team and Ultimate Frisbee squad, and someone who was always singing, laughing and “down for a dance battle.”
His favorite football team, the Dallas Cowboys, sent flowers to the visitation, which Chris would have thought was “the coolest thing ever,” his uncle wrote on Facebook. A separate arrangement was adorned with a football and Santa Fe hat, according to a friend’s Twitter post.
Survivors of the attack said Chris was one of the students who blocked the art room door against the shooter. The funeral was closed to the media, but friends and family described him on social media as a “hero” who was “so sweet” and “always had a smile on his face.”
Aaron Kyle McLeod
The family of 15-year-old Aaron Kyle McLeod held a visitation Thursday with a private cremation. His family and friends said he had a history, musicals and playing tennis with his sister. Born in Chico, Calif., he moved to Santa Fe in 2011.
Kyle, as his family and friends called him, “was a wonderful son, brother, grandson and friend,” his obituary read. “His sweet and loving spirit will be greatly missed by all.”
His visitation in Hitchcock was closed to media, but friends remembered Kyle as “outgoing and super sweet.”
“He was never one to be a sad or down person,” Karli Reeves, 15, said in an earlier interview with the Chronicle. “He always had to joke or laugh about things.”
Others remembered him as an “amazing person” and “wonderful student.”
“I will never forget the silly faces he made and his smile,” one person wrote on an online tribute. “He was funny and sweet. Kyle was a wonderful student and I will never forget him.”
“We are still in such disbelief that anything good can come out of such a horrific event. My mom always made good come out of bad situations though and this is no different for her.” Recie Tisdale, on his mother, Cynthia