COLORADO SPRINGS – About 200 people attended a candlelight vigil outside a Colorado Springs mobile home park where six people celebrating family birthdays were shot and killed before the gunman killed himself.
The Gazette reports that family and friends of those slain and members of the larger community paid their respects late Thursday to the victims, all extended family members. Mourners held candles, crosses and each other as they honored those slain.
Police have said the gunman was upset about not being invited to the gathering thrown by his girlfriend’s family and that the shooting early Sunday was an act of domestic violence.
The shooter, 28-year-old Teodoro Macias, had been in a relationship with one of the victims, 28-year-old Sandra Ibarra, and had a history of controlling and jealous behavior, police said earlier this week.
The other victims were 30-year-old Melvin Perez, 33-year-old Mayra Ibarra de Perez, 52-year-old Joana Cruz, 21-year-old Jose Gutierrez and 26-year-old Jose Ibarra. Three children at the party were unhurt.
As weeping mourners looked on, several teenage family members who had left the party before the shooting walked in a line down a street during the vigil. They carried a poster with the faces of Sandra, Mayra and Jose Ibarra, all siblings.
