Police release the names of the 14 San Bernardino shooting victims
Dan Turkel
San Bernardino shooting
(REUTERS/Mike Blake) FBI and police investigators examine evidence at the scene of the investigation around the area of the SUV vehicle where two suspects were shot by police following a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California December 3, 2015.
Shannon Johnson, 45, Los Angeles Bennetta Betbadal, 46, Rialto Aurora Godoy, 26, San Jacinto Isaac Amanios, 60, Fontana Larry Kaufman, 42, Rialto Harry Bowman, 46, Upland Yvette Velasco, 27, Fontana Sierra Clayborn, 27, Moreno Valley Robert Adams, 40, Yucaipa Nicholas Thalasinos, 52, Colton Tin Nguyen, 31, Santa Ana Juan Espinoza, 50, Highland Damian Meins, 58, Riverside Michael Wetzel, 37, Lake Arrowhead
The families of the victims were all notified before the Sheriff's Office released the names of the victims.
"This shooting has caused each victims family, friends and co-workers, along with the first responders, to suffer an enormous personal tragedy. We must stand strong and offer support to each individual affected by this senseless attack,” Sheriff John McMahon said in the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department's press release.
Specific details regarding the lives of some of the victims have come to light via media reports and social media postings. They are gathered here.
Nicholas Thalsinos
Thalsinos, 52, had been an employee of the San Bernardino Department of Health for about 12 years, according to ABC7.
Two weeks prior to the shooting, Thalasinos had a "heated on-the-job discussion" with Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the two current suspects, about Islam, CBS reports. Kuuleme Stephens, a friend of Thalasinos who had been brought into the debate, said that Thalasinos and Farook had disagreed on whether or not Islam was a "peaceful religion," with Farook claiming that it was and saying that Americans do not understand the religion.
The friend, also a co-worker of Thalasinos, did not "sense any pending violence at the time" and claimed that Thalasinos didn't either. Thalasinos' wife Jennifer, an elementary school teacher, "believes her husband was martyred for his faith and beliefs," according to Stephens.
The night before the shooting, Thalasinos, who was Jewish and an outspoken supporter of Israel, posted to Facebook that he had received a Facebook message from an "anti-Semitic" user, saying "you will never sucsseed [sic] to make a country for jews, because you are criminals and cowards, you are juste using usa and Europe to fight for you, soon you ll get your ass kicked, you will die and never see Israel as country believe me never," CNN reported.
The message is not thought to be linked to the shooting. Thalasinos' Facebook page is now memorialized.
Damian Meins
Damian Meins, 58, worked for the Riverside County Department of Environmental Health for 28 years, according to ABC7. He had recently begun work at the San Bernardino Department of Environmental Health and was also a gym teacher.
Juan Perez, his employer, told ABC7 that he played Santa Claus for the local school and Meins' wife told CNN that "He was my best friend and an incredible father who was loved by all."
Meins also worked with children at a local Catholic School and received a Community Recognition Award for his work there, CBS reports.
Damian is survived by his wife, who is a Catholic school principal, and two daughters, one of whom is a teacher.
Michael Wetzel
Michael Raymond Wetzel, 37, is survived by his wife and six children. He and his wife Renee had one child together and five from previous marriages, according to CBS.
On Wednesday, Renee reached out to a web group called Lil' Mamas, saying "Please pray. My husband was in a meeting and a shooter came in. There are multiple people dead/shot. I can't get a hold of him."
Bennetta Betbadal, 46, fled her home country of Iran when she was 18 to "escape Islamic extremism and the persecution of Christians that followed the Iranian Revolution," according to a statement from her family cited by The Daily Breeze. Betbadal and her husband, a police officer at Riverside Community College whom she met in 1997, are Roman Catholics.
Betbadal began working with the San Bernardino County Health Department in 2006. She is survived by her husband, two sons, and daughter, who were informed of her death on Thursday, after not hearing from her since Wednesday morning.
“It is the ultimate irony that her life would be stolen from her that day by what appears to be the same type of extremism that she fled so many years ago,” her family said in a statement.
Robert Adams
Robert Adams, 40, is survived by his wife Summer and his 20-month-old daughter Savannah, The San Bernardino Sun reports.
Adams enjoyed taking his daughter to the park and uploaded new photos of her to Facebook "almost every night," according to the LA Times.
Online records obtained by The Sun indicate that Adams had worked as an environmental health technician and specialist for the San Bernardino County Department of Health since 2011 and possibly earlier.
Lawrence Daniel Kaufman, 42, worked at a coffee shop inside the center where the shooting took place.
His partner, Ryan Reyes, told ABC7, "I'm not just exaggerating because he was my boyfriend, but the world will suffer from having one less person like him in it."
He loved horror movies and held up grocery store lines with his habit of talking to everybody that he met, the LA Times reports. Kaufman refused to get a driver's license because he enjoyed daily rides to and from work from Reyes.
Isaac Amanios
Isaac Amanios, 60, is survived by his wife and three adult children, according to the LA Times. A family member said that he was "an amazing father, brother, an amazing everything."
Nat Berhe, a football player on the New York Giants, tweeted that Amanios was his cousin.
Harry Bowman
Harry Bowman is survived by his daughters, who are 15 and 11 years old. A friend of Bowman described him as intelligent and loving to his daughters.
Sierra Clayborn
Sierra Clayborn, 27, had recently joined the San Bernardino County Health Department and said that she had a "blooming career" on her Facebook profile, according to the San Bernardino Sun.
The LA Times reports that Clayborn was an environmental health specialist. Mary Hale, the manager of the apartment complex where Clayborn lived, told The Times that Clayborn frequently spoke about loving her job. "Whin I think of Sierra, only one word comes to mind: She was a lady," Hale said.
Juan Espinoza
Juan Espinoza, 50, is survived by his wife, daughter, and son. His daughter told The LA Times that Espinoza was an inspector with the San Bernardino County Health Department.
Shannon Johnson
Shannon Johnson, 45, had worked as an enviromental health specialist for 10 years, ABC7 reports.
Tin Nguyen
Tin Nguyen, 31, was a Vietnamese-born food inspector for the San Bernardino County Department of Health, The San Bernardino Sun reports. A friend of Nguyen's described her as "the most amazing person anyone could ever meet" in a social media post.
Nguyen was planning to get married in 2017, according to The Desert Sun. Tin Nguyen's cousin, Calvin Nguyen, told The Desert Sun that the victim's family had not been concerned Wednesday night because Tin was not supposed to be working that day in the building where the shooting took place. The family learned at 11 that night that Nguyen had in fact been in the facility.
Aurora Godoy
Aurora Godoy, 26, was the youngest of the 14 killed in Wednesday's attack. Rebecca Godoy, who wrote in a Facebook post that Aurora was her niece, and that "We will keep her flame alive so that her young son does not forget his special mother."
Business Insider does not currently have detailed information on Yvette Velasco other than that the latter worked for the San Bernardino County Department of Health.
This is a developing story and information is added to this page as it is made available.
