10 Years Later: Loved ones honor Seal Beach shooting victims
SEAL BEACH, Calif. - Family, friends and community members gathered at the Seal Beach Pier Tuesday for a memorial honoring the eight lives lost in the deadliest mass shooting in Orange County's history.
The shooting took place on October 12, 2011, and 10 years later, loved ones are continuing to honor the victims.
"They're not forgotten and we love and miss them and it's just a reminder of what was lost. There's a lot of heartbreak and a lot of love still and that's what we're here [at the memorial] for," said Bethany Webb.
Webb's sister, 46-year-old Laura Lee Elody, was working at Salon Meritage that day and her mother, Hattie Stretz, was getting her nails done when the shooter, Scott Dekraai, walked into the salon and opened fire. He was upset over a custody dispute with his ex-wife, Michelle Fournier, and shot and killed her and then shot and killed seven other people.
In addition to Fournier, the shooter also killed Randy Fannin, Lucia Kondas, Michele Fast, Laura Elody, Victoria Buzzo, Christy Wilson and David Caouette.
Stretz was the ninth person who was shot but survived.
Stretz spoke at the memorial Tuesday.
"I was the only one shot who survived but I certainly was not the only survivor. There are countless survivors, husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles," said Stretz.
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One of the colleagues who was able to escape the gunfire also spoke at the memorial service.
"Ten years after this horrible day and I am still waiting to wake up from this nightmare. I relive that tragic day constantly, the panic, the chaos, and the horrible scene, the smells that I cannot describe, watching my friends massacred just like a movie but it wasn't a movie. This was real life," he said.
Following the memorial service, families walked the pier with flowers and candles. They threw flowers into the ocean as a way to honor the lives lost.
"These people were real people with real names who are loved and missed and we have to do something about it so there isn't another eight families that are going through what we're going through," said Webb.
Webb said she is hoping gun legislation will be passed.
"These senseless acts of gun violence have to stop and really nothing has changed ten years later on that part of it. We can't even get basic gun legislation done. When is it enough? It is enough now. It was enough ten years ago. All these people you see here are missing a part of them," said Webb.
Dekraai's case lasted years because of a scandal over how authorities used jailhouse informants. A judge eventually ruled Dekraai's rights were violated and the death penalty was taken off of the table as a potential punishment. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.
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