WINDER — Raindrops fell from the sky on Friday evening onto the hundreds of people gathered, shedding tears and grieving those killed at Apalachee High School.
“We shouldn’t be here for this,” said Tresa Dudley, who has lived in Winder her whole life. “We should be up there watching them play football right now.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Four people died and nine were injured in the mass shooting that rocked the small town this week, leaving families grieving and a community reeling.
Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, two 14-year-old students, and Cristina Irimie and Ricky Aspinwall, two math teachers at the high school, were all killed. Nine others were injured, including some who were shot and are still hospitalized.
Angulo’s family attended the vigil Friday at Winder’s Jug Tavern Park in their first public appearance since the high schooler’s death. Sara Schneider, the founder of a local nonprofit that specializes in bereavement counseling for siblings, said the family is not ready to talk to the media but allowed her to speak on their behalf and read words written by Christian’s sister, Lisette.
“We miss my baby brother so much. Honestly, we don’t know how we’re going to navigate life without him. We just want him back,” said Lisette, whose words were read onstage by Schneider. “We’re trying to be strong for him, but we are hurting. We wish this never happened.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Updated conditions
On Saturday morning, family members updated the conditions of two people wounded at Apalachee.
After three days in the hospital and two surgeries, a 15-year-old wounded in the shoulder gets to go home, her mother Jackelyn Garcia posted on Facebook Saturday morning.
Garcia’s daughter, Melany, made it out of her second surgery Friday, and hospital staff were able to close her gunshot wound. Melany’s broken bone seems to be aligned well enough to heal on its own, her mother wrote, and they’ll know in a few weeks if she will need any more procedures.
David Phenix, a teacher at the school who sustained gunshot wounds to his hip and foot, is stable, his daughter Katie Phenix wrote on Facebook. In an update posted Saturday morning, she thanked the ICU and surgical care teams for their kindness and generosity.
Phenix had stomach pain the previous night, but he’s feeling better this morning, Phenix wrote. He will see his grandson later today.” All things are positive!” She wrote. “We spent the night watching ‘Friends’ on TV!”
‘It’s going to take a long time’
Winder is the type of community where it’s impossible to not know someone who was impacted by the tragedy, said local coffee shop owner Millie Finch. Finch and her husband opened Night Sky Coffee Roasters in February this year, in part to build “a space people can come and be safe and have conversations.”
“We’re just staying open, being here for the people, hopefully making a space where people can feel safe,” Finch said. “It’s going to take a long time for such a small, tight-knit community to feel safe again.”
Some staff at the shop are recent graduates of Apalachee. Students come to the shop to study, she said.
“You see everybody, and it hurts your heart to know that their life is going to be changed now,” she said.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
In Barrow County, where high school football rivalries captivate the town on Friday nights, “two schools come together as one — it doesn’t matter what side of the tracks you’re on,” said Daniel Dewitt, who graduated from Winder-Barrow High School, Apalachee’s rival. “When there’s a tragedy, we all come together.”
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and U.S. Rep. Mike Collins spoke to the community at the vigil on Friday and lit candles to honor those who died.
“All of us who are parents, when we have the honor of dropping our children off to school in the morning, we want to be able to pick them up a few hours later,” Warnock said. “It is a ritual and a routine that we take for granted. But increasingly, in the United States of America, we can’t take for granted that we will pick our children up.”
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Business owners in downtown Winder are providing places for students and teachers to gather, talk, or just window shop — whatever they need, said Veronica Padgett, who owns a boutique.
“It’ll never be forgotten, but we’ll move forward one day at a time,” she said. “Everyone has everyone’s back here.”
