A visitation will be held Friday for a Santa Ana woman who was among 14 people killed in the mass shooting at a San Bernardino care facility for people with developmental disabilities.
Tin Nguyen, 31, a food inspector with the San Bernardino Department of Public Health, died Dec. 2 in the shooting being investigated by the FBI as an act of terrorism. She was born in Vietnam and was engaged to be married.
On Facebook, one of her friends called her “the most amazing person anyone could ever meet.”
“Her heart was bigger than the sun, and her personality was addicting,” her friend wrote.
A visitation will be held at 10 a.m. at Peek Funeral Home, 7801 Bolsa Ave., Westminster. Funeral services will be held at 8 a.m. Saturday at the Church of St. Barbara, 730 S. Euclid St., Santa Ana, with interment at Good Shepherd Cemetery, 8301 Talbert Ave., Huntington Beach.
Hundreds of people attended a private funeral service in Covina on Thursday for Yvette Velasco, 27, of Fontana, who was also killed at the shooting at the Inland Regional Center. Her’s was the first funeral held for the 14 victims.
Calling Velasco’s death a tragedy, family friend Chuck Franklin told reporters outside the ceremony at Forest Lawn Memorial Park-Covina Hills that he wanted to send love to her relatives.
“We just want to say God bless you, that we love each and every one of you and you’re in our thoughts and our prayers,” Franklin said.
Velasco worked as an environmental health specialist at the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, which was holding a holiday party when the shooting erupted.
The shooting occurred around 11 a.m. Dec. 2, leaving 14 people dead and 22 others injured. After an extensive manhunt, the shooters — Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27 — were killed in a gun battle with police about seven hours after the shooting.
Authorities said Farook dropped off the couple’s 6-month-old daughter with his mother prior to the morning shooting, saying he and his wife had a doctor’s appointment. The couple had been married for about two years.
FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday the couple was “radicalized” long before the shooting, even prior to being married. Farook brought Malik to the United States in 2014. She entered the country on a fiance visa.
Intelligence sources said Malik posted a statement of allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi online just before the killing began, and an ISIS online radio broadcast said Farook and Malik were ISIS supporters.
Farook was an employee of the San Bernardino County Public Health Department and had been at the holiday party, but left and returned with his wife to carry out the shooting, authorities said.
Also killed in the shooting were: Sierra Clayborn of Moreno Valley, 27; Aurora Godoy of San Jacinto, 26; Damian Meins of Riverside, 58; Robert Adams of Yucaipa, 40; Isaac Amanios of Fontana, 60; Bennetta Bet-Badal of Rialto, 46; Harry Bowman of Upland, 46; Juan Espinoza of Highland, 50; Shannon Johnson of Los Angeles, 45; Larry Kaufman of Rialto, 42; Nicholas Thalasinos of Colton, 52; and Michael Wetzel of Lake Arrowhead, 37.
Funeral services are expected to be held in Georgia for Johnson, whose girlfriend works on a crisis-intervention team in the office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
At 10 a.m. Wednesday, funeral services will be held for Godoy at Calvary Chapel, 19300 S. Vermont Ave. in Gardena, followed by interment at Green Hills Mortuary and Memorial Chapel, 27501 S. Western Ave. in Rancho Palos Verdes.
—City News Service