Shooting victims came to the United States for a better life

Brindra Giri brought the couple’s 16year-old daughter and 11-year-old son from Nepal with her when she moved to the U.S. in May.

They joined several other family members, including Brindra Giri’s mother, Til Kumari Puri, and two brothers, as residents of Towson, said Bhandari, who was also born in Nepal and said he was from the same region of the Asian nation.

Bhandari described Giri as a friendly and positive presence, a woman who “never complained,” worked hard and came to this country in part because she wanted to provide for her children the advantages she lacked while growing up in Nepal.

Bhandari said he sat with family members at their home in Towson until early Friday. He described them as “devastated” and “disconsolate” and said Puri, Brindra Guri’s mother, repeatedly bewailed the fact that her daughter died before she did.

Guri’s immediate family speaks only “limited English,” Bhandari said, and is not familiar enough with life in the U.S. to know where to turn.

“They’re brand new to the community. They don’t know where the resources are. They just keep on crying and stuff like that. They’re not very integrated to the community. That’s why I’m trying to help,” he said.

Bhandari said he took the day off Friday to begin helping with funeral arrangements, in part because the Hindu religion believes the dead should be buried as quickly as possible. He spent part of the afternoon helping Kashiram Giri work out details with a Parkville funeral home.

He said he had reached out to state agencies and to Rite Aid to seek help with funeral expenses, which he said would probably exceed $6,000.

A Nepalese-American woman who said she was a friend and co-worker of Giri described her — and the scene of the shooting — in Nepali to Bhandari, who translated her accounts into English.

The woman, who requested anonymity out of concern for her safety, said she gave Giri rides to work every day — Giri was working on earning her driver’s license while also studying English — and the pair spoke frequently over lunch and during breaks.

Giri had only been on the job for about three weeks, the woman said, and usually spoke about her children — particularly her daughter, who often good-naturedly teased her about being so “innocent” and “trusting.”

She also said Giri was a hard worker who went out of her way to help others in the job.

The woman said panic ensued as the shooter entered the warehouse, firearm drawn, and Giri was yelling at her coworkers — in the Nepali language — to run when she was gunned down from behind.

Five Nepalese-Americans worked in the production department at the warehouse, she said. Giri’s job was to receive orders as they arrived.

Bhandari said the news of the shooting “is all over Nepal,” a country where he said gun violence is a rarity.

Hayleen Reyes, 21, moved to Baltimore from the Dominican Republican five months ago.

“It’s just been very hard. Our heart is broken,” Reyes’ great-grandmother, Zenaida Fernandez, said through a translator. “She was a very happy person.”

Family members described Reyes as bright and outgoing, someone who loved to make others laugh. Her passion was singing, and she would sing daily to Fernandez, who helped raise her.

Reyes dreamed of becoming a profes- sional singer, they said.

Fernandez was among a dozen family members — including some who had traveled from New York and Boston — who gathered at Reyes’ East Baltimore rowhome on Friday. She lived on Gusryan Street with her father and 1-year- old daughter, Brithany.

Family members wiped away tears as they spoke to reporters in the front yard and made plans to go to the funeral home Saturday. Brithany laughed and smiled as she watched a video that family in the Dominican Republic had just made to remember Reyes. The little girl giggled as she watched pictures of her mother, while aunts and uncles wept quietly.

“One of the biggest concerns that we had was: What was her last moments like? What was going through her head? What was going through her mind about our family, her daughter?” said Reyes’ uncle, Andy De Las Nueces, 29.

On the day of the shooting, he said he had heard the news but did not realize his niece was among the victims until that evening. FBI agents and detectives came to the house that afternoon where they broke the news to Fernandez. He said family in the Dominican Republic quickly began sharing news stories of the shooting.

De Las Nueces said Reyes’ mother and other relatives still live there. Reyes’ father declined to comment. When she moved to Baltimore, Reyes first had a job working at a hotel, De Las Nueces said. Reyes had recently started at the distribution center, where she did not know anyone, he said.

De Las Nueces said many family members remain in shock and disbelief that she died so young, and after relocating for a better future for her daughter.

Her daughter, he said, was the center of her life.

The family has not yet decided who will raise Brithany, De Las Nueces said. The family has also struggled to explain her mother’s absence to her.

On most nights, Brithany cuddled up against her mother to sleep, he said. Since the shooting, he said she awoke in the middle of the night crying out for her mother.

The little girl didn’t understand why she wasn’t there.

Sunday Aguda was outside on break when the shooter approached. The native Nigerian, 45, became the day’s first victim.

Per Nigerian culture, he earned his first name from the day of the week on which he was born. He married in February and lived in a townhouse in Dundalk.

His mother-in-law, Darcel HayesBridges, said she rushed to Dundalk from her home in Lehigh Valley, Pa., after the shooting. She stood outside the townhouse Friday afternoon, saying her daughter was devastated.

Hayes-Bridges remembered meeting her future son-in-law for the first time, noting his cheerfulness and deep faith. Aguda was know to quote Scripture.

“I said, ‘I approve,’ “she recalled telling her daughter.

He had only been on the job three weeks, she said. “He was very well-loved,” his mother-in-law said.

Although police said he was 45, HayesBridges said this Sunday would have been his 45th birthday.

Families of the victims ask that donations be made to the Victoria Russell Foundation, a nonprofit established to foster a strong relationship between residents of Harford County and first responders.