Victims of Calif. gunman were young, diverse
Apr 4, 2012, 8:19 PM
(AP) – Hundreds of people turned out for a memorial service Tuesday night, while family members and friends remembered the six students and one employee who were killed when a gunman opened fire at Christian-based Oikos University in Oakland, Calif. on Monday.
Three other people were wounded.
The Alameda County Coroners Bureau on Tuesday released the names of six of the seven victims. The name of the seventh victim was released by her father.
Family members have been speaking out about their loved ones, who ranged from 21 to 53 years old and came from Nigeria, Nepal and the Philippines, as well as the United States.
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Doris Chibuko, a 40-year-old mother of three girls, was two months from graduating from the school’s nursing program.
Born in Nigeria, she was an attorney in the state of Enugu before marrying Efanye Chibuko in 2002 and immigrating to the United States. The couple lived in San Leandro. Their children are 3, 5 and 8.
Her husband told The Associated Press that his wife was “a very, very very sweet lady.” He asked for prayers to get his family through their grief.
Chibuko worked part-time at Villa Fairmont Mental Health and Rehabilitation Center while she studied nursing. She hoped to combine her love of law and nursing and eventually practice medical law.
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Judith Seymour, 53, lived in San Jose with her two adult children and her partner of eight years, Timothy Brown.
The daughter of nurses from Guyana, she had worked as a tax analyst before being laid off and returning to school, Brown told the San Francisco Chronicle.
She would have graduated in June, and was receiving clinical training at the state prison in Vacaville, the newspaper reported.
“She had a great bedside manner and she could establish a rapport with patients,” Brown said. “She was very tender. She had the touch.”
Her children, Camella and Brian, are college students.
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Grace Eunhea Kim, 23, graduated from Foothill High School in Pleasanton in 2007, school officials told the AP on Wednesday.
While attending nursing school she worked at BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse in Newark, but a manager there declined to talk about her “out of respect for the family.”
Co-worker James Villanueava described her to the Chronicle as being “Full of life. She was truly the life of the party.”
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Katleen Ping, 24, identified as one of the victims by her father, was called the rock of her family.
The secretary/receptionist worked the front desk in the university’s administration department, where the gunman took her hostage then killed her.
She had been working at the school for about seven months to support her family and her 4-year-old son Kayzzer. She had moved from the Philippines to Oakland with her family in 2007.
Ping shared a home with her parents, brother and two younger sisters. Her husband lives in the Philippines and had been trying to get permission to move to the United States.
Her father, Liberty Ping, said he does not think his daughter knew the person who shot her.
“She’s with the Lord,” he said. “She’s in a better place right now.”
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Lydia Sim, 21, of Hayward, was described as a happy person who always had a smile on her face.
She babysat children at Hayward Baptist Church while attending nursing classes at the university. Daniel Sim said his sister was drawn to the school because of its predominant Korean-American student body, as well as its faith-based teachings.
“She felt a lot more comfortable,” he said. “She was really outgoing and really independent.”
He said his sister loved children, and children loved being around her.
She was studying for her nursing degree, but her ultimate goal was to attend medical school and become a pediatrician. She had attended Ohlone College in Fremont before transferring to Oikos and was nearing graduation.
Sim lived at home in Hayward with her parents and brother.
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Friends said Bhutia Tshering, 38, of San Francisco, was a gentle Buddhist from the Indian state of Sikkim near the Himalayan Mountains. He worked nights as a janitor at San Francisco International Airport and lived alone in the city’s North Beach neighborhood.
The Contra Costa Times reported he was killed when the gunman stole his car outside the university.
Prem Singh, his landlord at a residential hotel, said Bhutia attended nursing school classes at Oikos in the morning.
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Sonam Choedon, 33, of El Cerrito, grew up in India as the child of Tibetan refugees. She worked in education administration for Tibet’s exiled government before moving to the San Francisco Bay area city of El Cerrito from Dharamsala, India, a year and a half ago.
“Her death is really shocking to our community,” said family spokesman Tenzin Tsedup, president of the Tibetan Association of Northern California, where Chodon was a member. “There are many horrific things happening in Tibet and now we have to face yet another tragedy in the U.S.”
Chodon had worked for five years in the Education of Central Tibetan Administration in India, Tsedup said.
“She was a humble and loving person,” he said. “She was a simple and very kind person.”
Chodon was one of many new Tibetan immigrants who enrolled at Oikos to earn nursing degrees, Tsedup said.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
