GRIEVING LOSS
Washington, Pa., native was killed last Sunday
Mourners of Nicholas Cumer, the Pittsburgh-area man who was killed in last Sunday’s mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, embrace after the conclusion of his funeral service Saturday in Washington, Pa. Mr. Cumer graduated from Washington High School in 2012 and was a graduate student at St. Francis University in the school’s Master of Cancer Care program. He was in Dayton as part of his internship with the Maple Tree Cancer Alliance, where he had just been offered a full-time position. Story on
In college, Nicholas Cumer never took a snap as quarterback or made any tackles for the football team. Instead, he played sousaphone in the band.
But his impact was such that the Saint Francis University football squad showed up in home jerseys to honor him earlier in the week, and on Saturday, still more from his school helped jam a funeral service in Washington, Pa., where he grew up.
“He was just infectious,” said Pastor Brian Greenleaf of Washington Alliance Church after officiating an emotional service for the young man whose life was violently cut short. “He had a heart bigger than his chest.”
Mr. Cumer, 25, was among nine people killed early last Sunday in Dayton, Ohio, by a gunman who also injured 27, including a second Saint Francis student, Kelsey Colaric, 23, of Parma, Ohio, who is recovering from her wounds.
The shooter, Connor Betts, was killed by police less than a minute after he opened fire at a bar in the city’s Oregon District.
The mass shooting, and one 13 hours earlier in El Paso, Texas, claimed a combined 31 lives. It shocked the nation.
Inside the Piatt and Barnhill Funeral Home, hundreds of mourners from all stages of Mr. Cumer’s life filled every seat for the 11 a.m service and lined the hallways. White folding chairs were set up in the parking lot outside to handle the overflow.
Visible grief on mourners faces mixed with smiles as speakers described a brave and sometimes mischievous young man whose final breaths apparently were spent shielding others near him from a hail of bullets.
Mr. Cumer was born in Reading, lived in Washington and graduated from high school there in 2012.
He attended Washington Alliance Church and did volunteer work in the physical therapy department of Washington Hospital.
He transferred as an undergraduate to Saint Francis University in
Loretto, Cambria County. He earned a bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology there and was on the cusp of finishing a master’s of cancer care.
Some will likely remember him as a huge Mac Miller fan, as a fraternity brother, or as the strapping young man with a well-groomed beard andeasy smile.
A summer internship took him to the Maple Tree Cancer Alliance in Kettering, Ohio. The community is just outside Dayton, where a Saturday night out with friends put Mr. Cumer in the path of a young man’s deadly rampage.
A week from completing his internship, he had just been offered a full-time position there.
Mr. Cumer was an outgoing kid who played high school sports and made friends fast, those who knew him said. He was grounded in his faith. And he had a knack for making those around him happy.
“The coolest tuba player you can ever imagine,” Timothy Hornick, who pledged a fraternity with Mr. Cumer, told the Post-Gazette last week. “He was the weirdest, coolest guy. He looked like Adam Levine. Every girl adored him, and every guy wanted to be him.”
The university’s website showed photos of Mr. Cumer decked out in the school’s colors.
“We remember you, Nicholas,” the university posted to its Facebook page. “We remember you leading with heart and we remember your generous spirit.”
By Saturday, dozens had gone to that page to pen tributes and express shock.
“A young person who would have done so much good in the world, taken down by a man filled with hate,” wrote Judy Pulaski.
Mr. Cumer, having performed as an undergraduate, went on to become a graduate assistant to the band while pursuing his masters. Representatives of the band were among those who made the trip to Washington for visitation or the funeral.
The Washington Post reported that Mr. Cumer, Ms. Colaric and other fellow interns were celebrating when shots rang out. Tyler Erwin, 27, told the paper he and his girlfriend were in line at a bar along with Mr. Cumer and fellow interns, and that Mr. Cumer was on the ground, rolled onto his side and that Ms. Colaric was shot in the stomach.
Those who showed up Saturday to support the family ranged in age from senior citizens to grade school classmates.
After the service, two members of the Alpha Phi Delta fraternity, Nick Johnson and Andrew Lobb, both 25, held up red T-shirts with the words Cumer-Strong. Those words in black were wrapped inside the symbol of Batman — a favorite character of the young man whom they said was a role model within the fraternity.
Pastor Greenleaf, whose church is part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance said he has known Mr. Cumer since the young man was in middle school.
Asked how to reconcile such promise with such a tragedy, he said, “I tend to lean heavily on the knowns and rely on the Lord for the unknowns.”
Since Mr. Cumer made a decision years ago to follow Christ, the pastor said, he is confident he’s with Jesus.
“That’s what I cling to,” he said. “The unknowns, the whys, I think maybe will sort themselves out. Maybe they won’t.”