Family members of slain mass shooting victim Thomas J. McNichols mourn beside a memorial near the scene of the shooting. Photo / AP
Two were friends from work, enjoying a night on the town. One had recently given birth and was finally getting out of the house. Another had just gotten a new job at a place he loved.
The crowd outside the Ned Peppers bar in Dayton, Ohio, had much to celebrate Saturday night and the small hours of Sunday morning. But in an instant, their festivities turned into deadly chaos as a gunman clad in black opened fire with a military-style rifle and a large-capacity magazine. Nine lives were cut down and 27 more people were wounded in a matter of seconds before police officers shot and killed the gunman.
Those who died left behind at least eight children, and countless friends, co-workers, classmates, and family members struggling to grasp how so much could be lost so senselessly. Here is what we have learned about each of them.
Betts, 22, was the younger sister of the gunman, Connor Betts. She attended Wright State University, a commuter school in the Dayton area, where she studied earth sciences and was expected to graduate next year. The university posted a message on Facebook offering counselling services to students.
Betts was a graduate of Bellbrook High School, where she played in the marching band along with her brother. Another former member of the band, Alex Gerbic, recalled her as very outgoing and kind. "She was a very bubbly personality," Gerbic said.
According to a résumé she posted on LinkedIn, Betts spent much of the summer in Montana working as a tour guide at the Missoula Smokejumper Visitor Centre. Last summer, she supervised children's water activities at an urban park, according to Trish Butler, director of marketing and community engagement for Five Rivers MetroParks in Dayton, Ohio. She also worked at Bed Bath & Beyond and Pier One.
Local media outlets reported that Brickhouse, 39, grew up in Springfield, about 32km from Dayton. She lived in Virginia Beach, Virginia, for a time, where she worked for Anthem, the health insurance company, according to WAVY, a television station in Portsmouth, Virginia. The station reported that Brickhouse had recently transferred to Dayton to work for Anthem from home.
At the time of the shooting, Brickhouse was out with a friend and co-worker, Beatrice Warren-Curtis, who also was killed. Anthem's chief executive, Gail Boudreaux, sent a memo to the company's employees describing the two women as dear friends "known for their positive energy," according to the TV station.
A Facebook user, Brittany Hart, posted on Sunday that she had been close with both women and was shocked at their loss. In her post, Hart remembered Brickhouse as "like another aunt to me" and someone "I always wanted to tag along with."
Cumer, 25, had just five more days to go in his internship at Maple Tree Cancer Alliance in Dayton, the final requirement for his master's degree in exercise physiology from Saint Francis University in Pennsylvania. Then he planned to take a permanent position that Maple Tree had offered him.
"He really wanted to spend the rest of his life working with cancer patients," said Karen Wonders, Maple Tree's executive director. "Most 25-year-olds don't think that way."
Two colleagues had just bought a house and were celebrating Saturday, and they took Cumer along to show him the best his new home city had to offer. "If you're going to go out in Dayton, that's where you're going to go," Wonders said of the Oregon district, where the shooting took place. The two colleagues were wounded in the shooting.
The Maple Tree Cancer Alliance guides patients through exercise sessions during their treatment, and Cumer, who had worked full-time since May, was responsible for 20 patients.
"One of the things that stands out about Nick is that for every single one of his patients, he made them feel that they were the most important person in the world," Wonders said. "That's not something you can teach."
Working with cancer patients, "we're accustomed to heartbreak," Wonders said of her staff. "We've lost some very special people — patients — to us this year. What caught people off guard is, now it's one of our own. We're the ones who are strong for everybody else. Now the tables are turned."
Fudge, 57, spent the last day of his life with his entire family — all 100 of them — at a cookout by a reservoir in Springfield, Missouri.
"It was a wonderful opportunity for all of us — now it's the best memory," said Twyla Southall, his younger sister. "He was sitting at the table, laughing, eating and drinking."
Fudge was with his son and 10-year-old granddaughter, whose house was devastated by a recent tornado in the area, Southall said. They had just repaired the home, and Fudge was looking forward to painting the girl's room.
"We were actually celebrating an aunt's victory over cancer," Southall said Monday after visiting a funeral home to make arrangements for a service on Aug. 10. "She's not sick anymore, but it wasn't her that we would have to worry about."
Fudge, who grew up in Springfield with two sisters and three brothers, worked as a cook at several restaurants, Southall said. When he was a child, she recalled, he was hit by a train while playing, and lost three toes.
On Saturday night, he had gone out in Dayton with his son to celebrate a friend's birthday. His son escaped without injury. "He loved life and he loved his family," Southall said of her brother.
McNichols, also known as Teejay, was 25. He was the father of two girls and two boys, and was living with his aunt in the Westwood neighbourhood of Dayton.
"He loved to have fun, and every time I seen him, he was either laughing or smiling," said Jevin Lamar, a cousin of McNichols who grew up in Dayton and has since moved to Los Angeles. "At family events, he was playing kickball. He was a great father, a great brother. He was a protector. He protected his family. He protected his sisters. He just was just happy."
Oglesby, 27, was the mother of a 6-year-old daughter and a newborn girl, according to a message posted by the Miami Valley Community Action partnership, where Oglesby's mother has worked for almost 23 years. The agency is collecting funds for funeral costs as well as the long-term care of Oglesby's two children.
According to The Dayton Daily News, she worked at a day care center, and grew up attending church and going to drill team. She was a former student at Sinclair Community College.
Saeed Saleh, 38, grew up in Eritrea and emigrated to Ohio about three years ago, according to Yahya Khamis, a leader of the Sudanese community in Dayton, which assists Eritrean immigrants, most of whom are recent arrivals. "Most of the Eritreans have been in Sudan," Khamis said. "We understand each other. We speak the same language."
Saleh lived in Dayton with his wife and a young daughter, while two other children live in Eritrea with his mother, Khamis said. Like many African immigrants, he said, Saleh held down several jobs, working at a warehouse and driving for a car service.
The Oregon district of Dayton, where the shooting took place, is a magnet for drivers looking for fares, and Khamis said he believed that was probably what Saleh was doing there Saturday night when the gunfire broke out.
"He was a very good guy, he was very quiet," Khamis said, adding that on Sunday, he had spent time with the family. "His wife was crying all day, and they had a lot of pictures with him and his daughter."
Logan Turner, 30, worked as a machinist operating computer-controlled tools at the Thaler Machine Co. in Springboro, about 19km south of Dayton. After three years on the job, he had gained a reputation as one of Thaler's top employees, according to Greg Donson, president of the company.
Turner was earning an associate degree at a vocational school and working as server at the Whiskey Barrel Saloon when Donson met and recruited him. Donson said Turner soon distinguished himself as an intelligent, hard worker with a good attitude.
"He was quickly working his way to the top," Donson said. "A very positive person, with a big smile. Just a great guy."
Warren-Curtis, 36, grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, and had moved to Virginia, where she worked in the Virginia Beach office of Anthem, the health insurance company. She was in Dayton visiting a co-worker and close friend, Monica Brickhouse, who also was killed in the shooting.
"She loved her family, especially her mom; she enjoyed traveling to watch her nephew play basketball and hanging out with her niece," recalled her friend Lakisha Jarrett. "She loved to go to the football games to see her favorite team play, the Philadelphia Eagles."
Jarrett said she met Warren-Curtis, or Nikki, as her friends called her, in 2000 when they both worked at Coleman & Associates in Norfolk, Virginia.
"We instantly clicked," Jarrett said. "She touched many lives with her presence. You were guaranteed a laugh or two, and maybe even three, if she was around. She was just full of life."
Friends mourned her on Facebook as someone of strong religious faith who loved traveling. She posted photos of herself walking a beach in Cancún. When the film "Black Panther" came out, she posted that she would take children to see the film if their mothers could not afford tickets.
"Living life as He has designed for me to do!" she wrote. "I am who I am! Confident never cocky!"
Written by: Farah Stockman and Adeel Hassan
© 2019 THE NEW YORK TIMES
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