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4 years agoon
SAN JOSE — Mourners used colored markers to write messages on Keyla Salazar’s white casket before a funeral Tuesday for the middle-school teenager killed in a mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival.
“Keyla, you’re an angel. We will never forget you!” read one. Another said, “Keyla, I love you with all my heart.”
A Mass in English and Spanish was held at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in San Jose just two days after the girl with the sweet smile would have turned 14.
Relatives including her sobbing mother wore T-shirts with a photo of a grinning Keyla wearing a crown of small pink paper flowers.
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It was the first memorial for one of three people killed July 28 when Santino William Legan cut through a fence and opened fire with a Romanian-made AK-47 style-rifle at the popular Gilroy festival. Also killed were 6-year-old Stephen Romero of San Jose and Trevor Irby, 25, of Romulus, New York. More than a dozen people were injured.Authorities said Tuesday an ongoing investigation has found that Legan kept a “target list” that included religious groups, federal buildings, and both major U.S. political parties. The finding prompted the FBI to open a domestic terrorism case.
A mourner cries while attending a funeral for Keyla Salazar, 13, on Tuesday in San Jose. Salazar and two others were killed when a gunman opened fire at the Gilroy Garlic Festival July 28. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
They served tacos, listened to a mariachi band and helped plant flowers to honor Keyla’s memory.
On the day of the shooting, the teenager was eating ice cream with her mother, stepfather, two younger sisters and other relatives when they heard what they thought were fireworks.
When they realized they were gunshots, her stepfather, Eduardo Lopez, said the family started to run away. But Keyla stayed back to help a relative who used a cane. When Lopez turned around, he said he saw Keyla fall and thought she was taking cover. When he went back to help her get up, he said he was shot in the arm.
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“It’s been very hard losing her, especially for her mother. She hasn’t felt well,” Lopez said.Pumping Mississippi River Water West: Solution or Dream?
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