Here are the victims — all Christians and Jews.
My thoughts and prayers are with these families. Their pain is unfathomable.
Jihad is here. No one and nowhere is safe.
San Bernardino County authorities have released the names of the 14 people shot and killed during a health department party.
The victims were from Southern California and ranged in age from 26 to 60. They are:
— Yvette Velasco, 27, of Fontana. Her father described her as an “intelligent, motivated, and beautiful young woman.”
— Michael Wetzel, 37, of Lake Arrowhead leaves behind his wife and six children.
— Robert Adams, 40, of Yucaipa. The San Bernardino Victim leaves behind his high school sweetheart (wife) and young daughter.
— Bennetta Bet-Badal, 46, of Rialto. Benneta Betbadal was born in Iran in 1969. She fled to America at the age of 18 to escape Islamic extremism and the persecution of Christians that followed the Iranian Revolution. Benneta initially settled in New York City, eventually moving to California and marrying her husband, Arlen Verdehyou, a police officer. They moved to Rialto, California and had three children, now ages 10, 12, and 15.
— Harry Bowman, 46, of Upland.
— Sierra Clayborn, 27, of Moreno Valley. Her friends and family took to Facebook to lament her loss. “RIP Baby sis I love you more than you ever knew,” her sister, Tamishia Clayborn, wrote on Facebook.
— Juan Espinoza, 50, of Highland.
Juan Espinoza, of Highland, respected education so much he encouraged his eldest daughter to earn a bachelor’s degree with honors.
“I do remember him always saying that education is something that can never be taken away from you,” said his daughter, Jerusalem Espinoza-Mendoza, 25.
“It’s something that he instilled in me,” said Espinoza-Mendoza, who earned a bachelor of science degree in dental hygiene from Loma Linda University.
— Aurora Godoy, 26, of San Jacinto. Godoy, 26, just celebrated her third anniversary of marriage to her high school sweetheart, and was about to celebrate her son’s second birthday. She had just completed her probationary period with San Bernardino County’s Department of Environmental Health and was happy in her new job, her mother-in-law said.