3 Killed in ‘Random’ Walmart Shooting Identified

3 Killed in ‘Random’ Walmart Shooting Identified
One of the victims of the Walmart shooting, Victor Vasquez, a young father. (Screenshot via GoFundme)
Bowen Xiao
11/3/2017
Updated:
11/3/2017

The three people fatally shot at a suburban Walmart in Denver, Colorado were identified after police took suspect Scott Ostrem, 47, into custody.

The Nov. 1, Wednesday night shooting took the lives of a grandfather, a grandmother, and a young father with another child on the way, CBS News reported.

All three victims were identified by the Adams & Broomfield counties coroner.

Officials called the incident a random shooting, as they continue the investigation and search for a motive.

Grandfather Carlos Moreno, 66, was a longtime maintenance worker for a group universities in downtown Denver, according to CBS.

Moreno took his large family on trips to the mountains near Rocky Mountain National Park to explore wildlife, and to Sea World in Texas, cousin Russ Cordova told CBS.

The victim was described as a Broncos fan, and avid fisherman with an adventurous spirit of exploring and adventure.

“A very loving, passionate, and sociable person,” Cordova told the network. “People just navigated toward him and latched onto him. He'd just take them under his wing.”

The grandfather worked as a structural trades technician at the Auraria Higher Education Center, center spokesman Blaine Nickerson said.

The death “leaves a big hole in both his department and the campus as a whole,” Nickerson told CBS Denver.

“He always had a smile on his face. He often had a Road Runners hat from Metro State University, again he took a lot of pride in the campus, was a very can-do attitude kind of person and genuinely cared about what we were doing with the students and staff here on campus,” Nickerson told CBS Denver.

Pamela Marques, 52, was a proud mother and grandmother as well. Her niece said that her life revolved around her daughters and granddaughter, CBS News reported.

“They were her life,” Anntionette Marque said in a Facebook message. “She’s generous, caring, ... and her smile is contagious.”

Her niece said the mother’s daughter remains in disbelief over the sudden death.

On the day of the shooting, Pamela Marques was with her husband at Walmart, the niece said.

Father Victor Vasquez, 26 had two daughters and a third child on the way, when he was fatally shot at Walmart, according to a GoFundMe page set up by his family.

“As many of you have heard, there was a shooting at the Thornton Walmart. One of the fallen was Victor Vasquez, a father of two beautiful little girls with another child on the way. We are starting a go fund me to help out his fiancé, Alexis, his mom Jovita, and his children” the page read.

All donations will be used to help fund his funeral services and any other needs the family may encounter. As of writing on Friday, Nov. 3 the GoFundMe page garnered $23,601 out of the $25,000 goal.

Bowen Xiao was a New York-based reporter at The Epoch Times. He covers national security, human trafficking and U.S. politics.
twitter
Related Topics