Sniper's Victims Remembered
Oct. 14 -- They were doing favors for friends, going to the store, heading to work, waiting for a ride — ordinary activities that never draw much attention. We learned their names because they were victims of violence, having in common the seeming randomness with which they lost their lives.
But they all had stories worth telling, and friends and family who came forward to remember them.
"He was the type of person that when you left his presence, you said to yourself, you know, I'm going to be a little bit more like Jim. And he left an impression on you," said Larry Gaffigan, a friend of the sniper's first victim, James Martin.
He Got People Involved
Martin, 55, was killed Oct. 2 at a Shoppers Food Warehouse in Wheaton, Md., as he was picking up food for his church's youth group. Married, and the father of an 11-year-old son, Martin was also good at getting other people involved in the community, according to Gaffigan.
The sniper's victims have been random and unrelated, but Gaffigan happened to know two of them.
Seeking America's Promise for Her Son
The day after Gaffigan lost his friend Martin to the sniper's bullet, his housekeeper, Sarah Ramos, was killed. Ramos, a 34-year-old Salvadoran immigrant, was one of four people fatally shot on the morning of Oct. 3. She was killed as she sat on a bench waiting for a ride to another job.
Ramos had left a very comfortable life in her community in El Salvador and very courageously came to the United States, Gaffigan said. Her husband, had been an economics professor in El Salvador, and had come here reluctantly, according to Gaffigan. But Sarah Ramos knew what America could offer her 7-year-old son, and her husband respected her wishes, Gaffigan said.
A Life Dedicated to Children
Greg Wims said his friend James 'Sonny' Buchanan did a lot of favors for the community of White Flint, Md. Buchanan, 39, was a landscaper, and was mowing the grass as a favor to an old customer when he was shot dead early Oct. 3.
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