GOFUNDME ACCOUNTS OPENED FOR FAMILIES OF MANY VICTIMS
wanted to treat himself for a successful fishing season,” Gothard said from Anchorage.
Murfitt was an Alaskan to the core. Since he was a toddler, he loved playing hockey, Gothard said; her brother could fix almost anything mechanical; he was devoted to his dog, Paxson, a Western Siberian Laika.
Gothard said the family had pieced together her brother’s last minutes from Brian Mackinnon, a friend who was with him at the concert Sunday night. “He was just having a good time, enjoying himself and got shot in the neck,” she said of her brother. A woman standing next to Murfitt was shot in the head, Mackinnon told the family. He watched as medics tried to resuscitate Murfitt, though the medics told Mackinnon to leave the scene for his own safety.
“Sadly, he died in my arms,” Mackinnon wrote on Facebook. “I don’t really know what else to say at this time. I’m really sorry.”
Sonny Melton
When Sonny Melton and his wife, Heather Gulish Melton, heard the sound of gunshots Sunday night, he grabbed her and began to run.
“I felt him get shot in the back,” Gulish Melton told WCYB, a television station in northeast Tennessee. “I want everyone to know what a kindhearted, loving man he was, but at this point, I can barely breathe.”
Melton, 29, was described in Facebook tributes as a kind spirit, a registered nurse who worked for much of 2016 in the surgical unit at Jackson-madison County General Hospital in Jackson, Tenn.
“He was a very kind, compassionate, genuine person who lived life to the fullest, and he took great care of our patients,” said Amy Garner, a spokeswoman for the hospital. Union University, a college in Jackson, said Melton was a 2015 graduate of the school and worked in the emergency department at Henry County Medical Center.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, said Melton and his wife had been married only a year and had traveled from Tennessee for the music festival.
“When the bullets began raining down from above, Sonny shielded her from danger, selflessly giving up his life to save hers,” Sanders said Monday.
Susan Smith
Susan Smith, 53, was a lover of country music, a devoted mother to a son and daughter, a wife and a popular office manager at an elementary school in Simi Valley, Calif.
“A wonderful person,” said her father, Tom Rementer, through tears.
She had gone to Las Vegas with friends, where she was killed during the attack, said Jake Smith, a spokeswoman for the district. Smith’s friends survived the shooting.
Lisa Romero-muniz
Last year, Lisa Romero-muniz’s husband, Chris, forgot their wedding anniversary. This year he was determined to make it up to her.
So he made a grand gesture, planning a four-day weekend in Las Vegas and buying tickets to see her favorite country singer, Jason Aldean. Muniz, who worked long hours at a refinery, and Romero-muniz, a high school secretary in Gallup, N.M., left Thursday for Las Vegas, more than a six-hour drive away.
“She was beyond excited,” said Rosie Fernandez, her friend and supervisor at the high school where they worked. “For her husband to remember her anniversary and do all of that, this was a big thing for her.”
Romero-muniz’s death, confirmed by officials at the school where she worked, left her colleagues and community shaken, her co-workers said.
Born and raised in the small city of Gallup, she was a mother of three grown children and a secretary at Miyamura High School, where she was responsible for disciplining students who got into trouble. Romero-muniz, 48, had a warm personality and a big laugh, always teasing her co-workers, Fernandez said.
“We were known as the two loudmouths of the office,” Fernandez said. “She knew 90 percent of the kids at this school. She would talk to them like she was talking to her own children. I’d hear her saying, ‘I know you can do better than this.’”
On Monday morning, administrators put up posters around the school so that students could write on them how they were feeling. A candlelight memorial took place Monday evening.
Jessica Klymchuk
Another Canadian was among the dead. Jessica Klymchuk, 28, from the province of Alberta, had been visiting Las Vegas with her boyfriend, The Globe and Mail reported. She was a school librarian, a bus driver and the mother of four children.
Rachael Parker
Rachael Parker, 33, a police records technician from Manhattan Beach, Calif., was shot while attending Sunday’s concert in Las Vegas, and later died in the hospital, the Manhattan Beach Police Department confirmed in a statement Monday.
Parker was among four department employees who were attending the concert while off-duty. Another suffered minor injuries.
“She was employed with the Manhattan Beach Police Department for 10 years and will be greatly missed,” the department said in a statement.
Sandy Casey
Over the course of a carefree weekend in Las Vegas, they kept bumping into one another around the festival: at least a half dozen teachers, principals and school psychologists who worked for the Manhattan Beach School District in Southern California, taking a brief escape from their responsibilities to listen to live music.
The school district said Monday that Sandy Casey, 35, a special-education teacher originally from Vermont, was killed in the shooting. The other staff members from the district were physically unharmed.
Casey taught middle school and had worked for the district for nine years, an energetic person who delighted in her students, said Mike Matthews, the superintendent.
“She was a person who brings light wherever she is,” he said. “She has a classroom full of light and hope and caring.”
Casey’s fiancé, Chris Willemse, an instructional assistant for the district, was with Casey in Las Vegas. He wrote on Facebook: “As I sit and mourn such a beautiful life gone too fast, all I can say is look up and watch the birds fly high and free today, as that’s where I feel you smiling down upon all of us. I love you baby girl! Love you to pieces!”
Carrie Barnette
Whenever Carrie Barnette saw a hummingbird, she’d stop and marvel at the little creature.
The bird always reminded her of her grandparents who had passed away, friends and family said.
Now, her friends and family with whom she shared that personal detail, will see hummingbirds and think of her.
Barnette, who worked at Disney California Adventure, was among the 59 people killed at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas on Sunday night, her friends, family and The Walt Disney Co. officials confirmed Monday. Barnette, who lived in Riverside, was 34.
“She was a ray of sunshine,” said Destiny Calderon, 31, who several years ago worked with Barnette at Disney California Adventure. “She always had a smile. If you had a bad day, she would lift you up.”
Joey Castillo, who is married to Barnette’s younger sister, Amy Castillo, said this had been a shock for the whole family. Barnette had just purchased a home in Riverside, a couple of miles away from her sister.
“She’s a very loving person,” Castillo said. “She always put others before herself, was a very hard worker and she loved going to her music concerts.”
John Phippen
John Phippen, 56, was shot in the back as he danced next to his son Travis, an emergency medical technician who carried his father to a car that took them to a hospital, where he died the Los Angeles Times said. The elder Phippen was a New York native who moved to Santa Clarita, Calif., where he owned a remodeling company.
“He just was one of those people that whether he knew you or he didn’t know you, you needed help, he was there. No questions asked,” family friend Leah Nagyivanyi told KPCC radio.
Phippen, an avid music fan, had been excited to attend the concert and have a guys’ weekend away, said Nagyivanyi. “He loved his country music,” she said. “He loved to get out there and dance, and he was just a great guy.”
Jordan Mcildoon
Twenty-three-year-old Jordan Mcildoon, of British Columbia, Canada, was attending the festival with his girlfriend and had planned to return home Monday night, his parents, Al and Angela Mcildoon, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
“We only had one child,” they told the network. “We just don’t know what to do.”
They said Mcildoon was a heavy-duty mechanic apprentice and was preparing to start trade school.
Denise Salmon Burditus
Denise Salmon Burditus, 50, Martinsburg, W.VA., was anticipating the birth of a fifth grandchild. Instead, she died in the arms of her husband of 32 years, Tony, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Bailey Schweitzer
An avid concert-goer and country music fan girl, 20-yearold Bailey Schweitzer had been talking about going to the Route 91 Harvest Festival for weeks to hear Luke Combs play, said Katelynn Cleveland, who worked with Schweitzer in Bakersfield, Calif. They would jokingly refer to one another as their “work wives,” Cleveland said.
Hardly a day went by they didn’t talk — and when one of them was sick from work or wouldn’t show up unexpectedly, the other would call immediately, Cleveland said.
Schweitzer talked to Cleveland just hours before the shooting. She saw a photo of Cleveland’s new dog on Instagram and had messaged her, saying she couldn’t wait to meet her new puppy, Cleveland said.
Two days before that, Schweitzer called Cleveland and held the phone up to the stage. Brothers Osborne was playing her favorite song, “Ain’t My Fault.” Schweitzer had to let Cleveland listen.
She was having so much fun in Las Vegas that she was already planning to head back in April for her 21st birthday, Cleveland said.
Outside of working as a receptionist at Infinity Communications, Schweitzer volunteered her time at Bakersfield Speedway, which her parents have owned since she was 5 years old.
Rhonda Lerocque
Rhonda Lerocque, 42, of Tewksbury, Mass., was an “amazing” Tewksbury mother who doted on her family and helped rebuild homes devastated by disaster, according to her heartbroken family.
Lerocque was attending the Route 91 Harvest festival with her husband, Jason, when she was shot and killed, said her sister, Jennifer Zeleneski.
“It makes no sense ... My sister didn’t do anything,” Zeleneski, 31, said through sobs. “She never hurt people. She was the kindest person that I know. Her family is the picture-perfect family, what you would aspire to be.”
Zeleneski said her sister, who was in her early 40s, had made the trip to see the concert with her husband and 6-year-old daughter. Her daughter left the concert with another relative shortly before the shooting, Zeleneski said, and Lerocque’s husband wasn’t injured, according to family.
“She was amazing,” Zeleneski said of her sister. “She would work all day and still come home and make a home-cooked meal from scratch.
“She didn’t deserve this,” she said. “This is not fair.”
Rhonda Lerocque had worked for the past 10 years at the Cambridge, Mass., office of the design firm IDEO, according to her Linkedin page, where she wrote that she also had managed her own cleaning and organizational business.
She also loved to travel, according to Zeleneski, and on her Linkedin page, Lerocque wrote about taking inspiration from her family’s annual trip to Hawaii. She and her husband have also traveled to do volunteer work, including in Louisiana, where they helped rebuild homes after Hurricane Katrina, according to a biography for Jason Lerocque on his company’s website.
Jordyn Rivera
Jordyn Rivera just turned 21 in July, but the Cal State San Bernardino student’s life was cut short Sunday. A native of La Verne, Calif., Rivera was a fourthyear student in the health care management program and a warm, energetic person, University President Tomás Morales said Tuesday in an email to employees and students.
“I personally got a chance to know her when we spent time together last summer in London during the summer abroad program,” Morales wrote. “As one of her faculty members noted, we will remember and treasure her for her warmth, optimism, energy, and kindness.”
Rivera was a member of CSUSB’S chapter of Eta Sigma Gamma, the national health education honor society, according to Morales.
“This is a devastating loss for the entire CSUSB family,” he said.
Angie Gomez
Angie Gomez was a 2015 graduate of Riverside Polytechnic High School in Riverside, Calif. She “will always be loved and endeared by our Poly family,” read a post on the school’s Facebook page. After graduation she went on to attend classes at Riverside Community College. A Gofundme page seeking funds to help her family with funeral and other expenses described Gomez, 20, as “a cheerful young lady with a warm heart and loving spirit.”
Dana Gardner
Dana Gardner, 52, a deputy recorder for San Bernadino County in California, and her daughter attended the festival. While her daughter escaped injury, Gardner was killed in the attack. Dana Gardner’s sisters, Amber Harton and Hollie Brown, described their sister to KABC-TV as a “most wonderful mother, grandmother, sister.”
Her boss, Recorder and County Clerk Bob Dutton, described the 26-year employee as a “go-to person.” He said another staffer had told him that Gardner had been struck by two bullets.
Cameron Robinson
The 27-year-old St. George, Utah, resident was killed while attending the concert with his boyfriend, according to KTVXTV in Salt Lake City. A Gofundme page describes him as “an amazing friend, son, brother, uncle, cousin, co-worker and boyfriend.”
Chris Roybal
Navy veteran Chris Roybal,