BARCELONA’S VICTIMS
A LOOK AT SOME OF THE PEOPLE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN THURSDAY’S ATTACK
LUCA RUSSO, 25, ITALY
One of Italy’s two victims in the Barcelona van attack is being mourned as a brilliant young engineer dragged to his death before his girlfriend’s eyes.
A determined Luca Russo, 25, already had a job in electronic engineering, no easy feat in Italy, where youth unemployment runs stubbornly high.
“We were investing in him, we wanted to make him grow professionally,” the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Stefano Facchinello, one of the partners in the Padua area company where Russo had worked for a year, as saying.
Facchinello praised Russo Friday as a “willing, precise and punctual young man. He made an impression on us for his rationality and determination.”
The girlfriend, Marta Scomazzon, who was hospitalized with a fractured foot and elbow, told an aunt that “we were walking together, then the van came on top of us.” BRUNO GULOTTA, 35, ITALY
A father from Legnano in northern Italy is being praised as a hero who protected his children during an attack in Barcelona.
One of his Gulotta’s work colleagues, Pino Bruno, told the Italian news agency ANSA that he saved the life of his two young children — Alessandro, 6, and Aria, 7 months — by throwing himself between them and the van that mowed people down.
Bruno said he spoke to Gulotta’s wife, Martina, and she told him her husband had been holding the 6-year-old’s hand on the tourist-thronged avenue in Barcelona when “the van appeared suddenly.”
“Everyone knelt down, instinctively, as if to protect themselves,” Bruno said, adding that Gulotta put himself in front of his children and was fatally struck. ELKE VANBOCKRIJCK, BELGIUM
Arnould Partoens, president of the KFC Heur Tongeren soccer team, said Vanbockrijck was at the club “nearly every day” ferrying her 10- and 14-year-old boys back and forth to training and matches. He described her as very committed.
“She was always positive,” he said in a phone interview. He said the team would hold a minute of silence before every match and training session this weekend. Partoens said the family was on vacation in Barcelona. The boys and their father, a policeman, were unhurt, he said.
In a message of condolence on its Facebook page, the club said: “We deplore the death of Elke, the mother of two players from KFC Heur Tongeren. She was often at the club, and was committed to our club. We will always remember her as a happy woman, a caring mother and loving wife. Elke will be missed. Our deepest sympathy goes out to her two sons, her husband, family and loved ones.” IAN MOORE WILSON, CANADA
A Canadian killed in a terrorist attack on a street in Barcelona was described by his family as a man who enjoyed lively debate and travelling. Ian Moore Wilson was the father of a Vancouver police officer. Vancouver police issued a statement from the officer’s family saying Wilson was killed when a van plowed into crowds of tourists Thursday. Wilson is described as a loving husband to his wife Valerie Wilson of 53 years, a father, brother and grandfather who was “always game for a lively debate, a good book exploring new places, and a proper-sized pint.” The family says they’ll focus on “the extraordinary acts of human kindness” they’ve experienced despite the tragedy because that’s what Wilson would have wanted. They say they’ve received support from Vancouver police, the RCMP, airlines and emergency responders in Spain who helped Wilson in his final moments and provided urgent medical care to Valerie Wilson. “These are the things we will choose to focus on when we endeavour to come to terms with the senseless violence and acts of hatred that have taken loved ones before their time,” the statement said. FRANCISCO LOPEZ RODRIGUEZ, 60, SPAIN
One of his nieces, Raquel Baron Lopez, said on her Twitter account that Rodriguez, 60, died immediately when he was struck by the van. After the attack, Lopez posted pictures of her uncle on Twitter when his family was looking for him and trying to find out whether he was alive. JARED TUCKER, 42, USA
Jared Tucker has been confirmed as among those killed in a deadly truck attack in Barcelona, Spain, his father said Friday.
“We just got the text — Jared’s body was identified at the morgue by his wife,” Daniel Tucker told the Daily News of New York. “It’s just something we really just don’t understand. I don’t know what else to say.”
Jared Tucker’s sister, Tina Luke, told The Associated Press that Tucker, 42, and his wife Heidi Nunes-Tucker were celebrating their first wedding anniversary with a visit to Barcelona. PEPITA CODINA, 75, SPAIN
Pepita Codina’s death was confirmed on Twitter and Instagram by Xavier Vilamala, the mayor of Hipolit de Voldrega, the town of 3,000 people where she was from near Barcelona. Vilamala said he was “very sad and distressed” by the news. ANA MARIA SUAREZ, SPAIN
A car attack early Friday in the Spanish seaside resort of Cambrils claimed the life of Ana Maria Suarez, according to a tweet by the Spanish Royal Family.