Virginia Beach Shooting

[Lewis]

More mass shootings, a disgruntled employee killing 11 at a municipal center. These events are too common now, I used to be in shock when I see these headlines, now its just as common as reading the weather report.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/31/us/virginia-beach-shooting/index.html

[JennyM]

Me too.. I am like... "shooting?! ... oh ok... Nothings new... Until there's always gun then this will be common. 

[Omoyeme]

https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/the-most-devastating-day-12-killed-several-injured-in-virginia-beach-shooting/

 

This shooting in Virginia Beach hits too close to home for me and my family.  (At times, we use to attend our 2-day circuit assemblies in that area when I was a little girl.)  There is a French congregation at a small KH nestled near the waterfront and I visited that Hall a little over one month ago to give support to a dear relative who was giving her first talk in the French language.  When I arrived, I went directly to the ladies room and saw a young sister I had not met before.  We exchanged smiles and a polite greeting and then went about our way as the midweek meeting was about to begin.

 

Several hours ago I received a message from that same relative who informed me that one of the fatalities of the VA Beach shooting was one of our sisters who attended that same congregation. (When she text me her photo I realized it was the same sister I met in the ladies room a month before!)  My heart hurts for her family and congregation because, as my relative mentioned, she was well-known and beloved by all; a dedicated sister, and a regular pioneer who worked closely with the LDC.

 

She had made plans to tour Bethel this weekend!

 

I hesitate to mention this sister's name in a public forum.  However, I would gladly PM you her name to kindly request that you say a prayer to Jehovah in behalf of her family please?

 

Edited June 1, 2019 by Omoyeme

[Dustparticle]

It is now a Demonic world. That is all I have to say.

[GoldAussieGirl]

People really have gone from bad to worse. Much worse. It's so sad that these events as horrible as they are dont shock us anymore 😢

[JennyM]

woe for the earth...----- revelation 12:12 

[1gemstone]

So sad...

[BenJepthah]

12 hours ago, Lewis said:

More mass shootings, a disgruntled employee killing 11 at a municipal center. These events are too common now, I used to be in shock when I see these headlines, now its just as common as reading the weather report.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/31/us/virginia-beach-shooting/index.html

I’m just guessing, I could be wrong but I doubt it, the shooter wasn’t one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I’d even go out on a limb , but I don’t think very far out, and claim the shooter did not attend meetings of any religious denomination in the last year. 

[Lewis]

12 minutes ago, BenJepthah said:

I’m just guessing, I could be wrong but I doubt it, the shooter wasn’t one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I’d even go out on a limb , but I don’t think very far out, and claim the shooter did not attend meetings of any religious denomination in the last year. 

Only info I could find on the shooter is Craddock is a black, registered Democrat, married and working at the facility for years.

http://www.theglobaldispatch.com/dewayne-craddock-identified-as-disgruntled-worker-who-attacked-virginia-beach-municipal-center-killing-12/

[BenJepthah]

What are the religious views of mass public shooters?

 22 MAY , 2018  

From January 1998 to the present, 69 killers have committed 66 mass public shootings in the US.  Each of these attacks claimed four or more lives.  Of the attackers, four have been identified as Christians, with just three clearly being regular churchgoers.  With 70% of Americans identifying themselves as Christians and over 33% going to church at least once a week, those numbers fall far short of what one might expect.

 

 

Mine : so it is pretty much as I suspected in general. I did also find just one reference to Craddock being a Christian. But does that mean he attends a church with his family twice a year or weekly?? I’m guessing twice a year or less. In other words : whe. It comes to mass shooters “ the devil made me do it “. May apply more than “ mental illness made me do it!”

Edited June 1, 2019 by BenJepthah

[Omoyeme]

I received another text this morning from my relative.  (This French congregation has its' meetings held on Saturdays).  She said that "it was sad at the meeting today and there was crying before and after the meeting."  The elder who gave the opening prayer broke down in the middle of his prayer also.

 

Since the media has officially released the names of the victims, you can now include her family in your prayers, if you wish. 

Spoiler

Her name is Sister Brown...the second photo in the list of names at the link below:

 

https://www.wavy.com/virginia-beach-mass-shooting/video-city-manager-identifies-the-va-beach-shooting-victims/

 

 

Edited June 1, 2019 by Omoyeme

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

Thank you for confirming our worst fears, that one of our sisters was caught up in this horrible event.
I was hoping that it was not so.
Satan's system is spiralling out of control, and we are not immune to his actions.
Please, come quickly Lord Jesus.
Rev 22:20

Just Older

[GoldAussieGirl]

So sad to hear a sister was one of the victims. Will mention her and family in prayers 🙁

[hatcheckgirl]

Yes, we always hope one of our own is not involved. So very sad. Thank you Sandra for letting us know. Our collective prayers will help give them comfort in their distress. As he was with Job, “Jehovah is very tender in affection and merciful.” Jam 5:11

[booboo]

Oh Jehovah how long? 🙏🙏🙏

[hatcheckgirl]

18 hours ago, Dustparticle said:

It is now a Demonic world. That is all I have to say.

I was reading just this morning on how children in the US have to do "Lockdown" lessons to survive shooters.  I was aghast!  The last sentence of the article says it all:

 

"Our goal is to keep trying to shift that needle, to keep trying to get Americans, more people, more politicians to kind of realise that this is not a normal thing for kids to learn."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-01/two-australians-made-a-viral-gun-control-video/11118340

[SUNRAY]

The NY Times online mentions our sister and her religion..also the father's words. Many prayers!💖

[BenJepthah]

1 hour ago, SUNRAY said:

The NY Times online mentions our sister and her religion..also the father's words. Many prayers!💖

Literal tears.

[rocket]

6 hours ago, SUNRAY said:

The NY Times online mentions our sister and her religion..also the father's words. Many prayers!💖

It would be appreciated if one post a quote from a news source that one would also post a link. This is just good Forum manners.

[Tortuga]

12 minutes ago, rocket said:

It would be appreciated if one post a quote from a news source that one would also post a link. This is just good Forum manners.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/01/us/virginia-beach-shooting.html

 

It's a long article, you need to scroll a ways to find the comment about the sister.

[AH173]

A sister showed me her picture at my field service group this morning. And this is the image from face the nation on cbs today 

[SUNRAY]

41 minutes ago, rocket said:

It would be appreciated if one post a quote from a news source that one would also post a link. This is just good Forum manners.

I tried to save the link, but because it was my last free view without subscribing, I could not go back to get the link..Thank you Richard! 😉

[Omoyeme]

An article about Sister Brown is linked below.

 

https://pilotonline.com/news/local/virginia-beach-mass-shooting/article_89d387ca-84d1-11e9-963c-0fd30e6b47af.html

 

Quote

LaQuita Brown was Loved Around the World

 

    By Ana Ley
    Staff writer
    Jun 1, 2019 Updated Jun 1, 2019

 

From West Africa to North Carolina, LaQuita Brown was loved around the world.

Her relatives are reeling from her death at the hands of a mass shooter and declined to speak with a Virginian-Pilot reporter about her on Saturday. But playful exchanges on Facebook reveal glimpses of a woman who was adventurous, fun-loving and curious.

 

"You look gorgeous. Ms. Worldwide," Alison Parson wrote in response to a set of black-and-white photographs posted Feb. 2 of Brown gazing at the camera in a long, flowing skirt.

 

"Thanks girlie. I like that name," Brown replied. "It has a nice ring to it."

Known as Quita by some friends, Brown would have celebrated her 40th birthday this November. She was one of 12 people gunned down by a co-worker at a public works building in Virginia Beach Friday afternoon.

 

Her social media posts highlight trips across the United States and suggest she spent some time in West Africa and Europe. She wrote in English and French with her friends, several of whom are from Togo and the Ivory Coast.

Her timeline includes pictures of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and King Neptune in Virginia Beach.

 

"Hey, my sister, were you in New York?" Nguessan Leontine asked Brown in French four years ago after she posted a picture of herself in Columbus, Ohio.

"Yes, my sister, for a regional convention," Brown replied.

 

Public records indicate she was living in a quiet, residential neighborhood in Chesapeake. Vehicles surrounded her home Saturday morning as chatter streamed from inside.

 

A man in a suit came to the door and turned a reporter away while another man drove by with a look of concern for Brown's family.

"Sorry," he mouthed silently from behind the wheel.

 

She had a nice smile!

 

[Omoyeme]

Here's another article where her father is interviewed.

https://people.com/crime/virginia-beach-shooting-laquita-brown-died-dad-birthday/

 

Quote

Virginia Beach Shooting Victim LaQuita Brown Died on Dad's Birthday: 'She Was Everything to Me'

 

By Wendy Grossman Kantor and Maria Pasquini June 02, 2019 03:45 PM

 

As Dwight Brown turned 61 on Friday, he received a devastating call, informing him that his daughter LaQuita was one of the 12 victims of the Virginia Beach shooting.

 

“I had just got out of the hospital on Thursday with congestive heart failure,” Dwight tells PEOPLE. “Friday afternoon since it was my birthday I decided to go over to my best friend’s house.”

 

While he was “watching what was happening in Virginia Beach on the news,” Dwight, who lives nearby in Norfolk, got a call from his son. “He told me that my daughter was dead and he said, ‘Your baby, LaQuita got shot at that Virginia Beach thing. They airlifted her.’ I jumped in my car and we went there.”

 

On Friday afternoon, a gunman opened fire on a Municipal Complex which houses the city’s public works, public utilities and printing operation. The gunman killed 12 people and injured more, before he was killed in a shootout with police. All but one of the victims worked for the city.

 

LaQuita, a right-of-way agent with the Virginia Beach Public Works, had been with the department for 4½ years.

 

Although Dwight had last spoken with his daughter a week before her death, he had no plans to celebrate his big day with her as LaQuita was a devout “Jehovah’s Witness and they don’t celebrate birthdays.”

 

Opening up about his daughter’s character, Dwight says that she was “very religious” and spent much of her free time providing humanitarian relief around the world and preaching.

 

“Any time there was a natural disaster she went to help,” he shares, adding that she had also learned French and Spanish in order to be of more help.

 

“She was just everything. She was everything to me. I know nobody’s perfect — but from the time she was born, she had no faults,” her father says. “She was the best person to walk on the planet other than Jesus.”

 

LaQuita also helped her father through a very difficult time three years ago, when one of his brothers was killed by a hit and run driver.

 

“She saved me,” he says, adding that had it not been for LaQuita, “I wouldn’t have made it through that.”

 

The grieving father adds, “The world is in the worst shape without my daughter in it.”

In the wake of his daughter’s death, Dwight shares that his “only comfort” has been seeing all of the Facebook messages from people whose lives had been touched by LaQuita.

 

“She just impacted everybody she came in contact to,” he says, opening up about one post, in particular, written by a woman whom LaQuita had helped through her job with the city.

 

“She told her husband she was going to write a letter to Virginia Beach thanking my daughter,” he shares, adding that the woman said she “had never had someone treat her with so much care.”

 

“Days went by and she never got a chance to email my daughter to thank her and my daughter got killed. That’s the type of daughter I had,” he says. “She’s the female version of me. I’m a very caring sensitive person. She was my daughter, but she had my heart. And she always saw the best in people – even when everybody else would see the worst.”

 

[Omoyeme]

An article clip:

https://heavy.com/news/2019/06/laquita-brown-a-tribute-to-the-virginia-beach-victim/

 

Quote

LaQuita is Being Remembered & Mourned by Family & Friends as a Light in Their Lives

 

Sinda R. Price, a close friend who describes Brown as a sister, wrote, “It still doesn’t feel real. I can’t believe she’s gone…. She was one of those people who just lit up a room. Every room… And now that light is gone, and my heart can’t stop hurting.”

 

Price continued: “Rev 21:4 “And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.”

We will see you soon, big sis. ❤ LaQuita Brown.”

 

LaQuita’s cousin Kimberlita Casper said her heart was broken.

“I am heartbroken. My cousin’s life was taken from her today. 😥 I know that Jehovah has the last say and that brings me comfort but I still have a heaviness in my chest right now. My heart goes out to all families impacted by the mass shooting today in Virginia Beach.”

 

“Our conversation this particular day will never be forgotten. She was sharing her experience from the preaching work and going abroad and you could see the true joy she had. And we were at my father’s (her uncle’s) funeral and we were smiling, laughing and so happy because we know what God promises in just a little while longer if we give our best and do not tire out. #hewillcall”