The city of Aurora remembers victims who lost their lives in a warehouse shooting five years ago.
Family, friends and city officials, sat in a dimly lit room at Belle Salle Banquet Hall, 1920 E. New York St. in Aurora. They were given battery operated candles to use throughout the service. The room was filled with emotion as people greeted each other with warm hugs.
On February 15, 2019, Gary Montez Martin killed five men and injured six at the Henry Pratt Company in Aurora. Five of the six injured were police.
“Let us raise our candle in honor of Russell Beyer, Vicente Juarez, Clayton Parks, Josh Pinkard, and Trevor Wehner,” said Aurora Mayor Richard C. Irvin, as he called out the names of the five men who lost their lives.
Mayor Irvin recounted the events of the day. He remembered when the call came in about the active shooting.
“In the minutes that followed, things were fundamentally, fundamentally changed,” he said. “People had been shot and lives had been lost. In a matter of minutes, we became the very city we watched on the news.”
That day not only changed the city but also the lives of the victims’ families.
Ted Beyer, the father of Russell Beyer, said he visits his son’s grave twice, sometimes three times a day.
“That's my light. That's my heart. That's my heartbeat right now,” he said. “That’s what keeps me going. I've seen death from the war -- never dreamed -- and I worked there for 40 years at Pratt with him.”
Abby Parks is the widow of Clayton Parks. She was there with her mother and five-year-old son.
“Other people's grief can be hard. So, when a whole entire community grieves with you,” she added, “remembers with you, [it] lets you know that the people that you've loved aren't forgotten. It means a lot.”
Clayton Muhammad is the senior advisor to the mayor. He said the city not only wants to remember the date of the tragedy but also the date of the victims' births.
“We hope to turn those days into celebrations,” he said. “And so, to the families you have our direct contact info, and we have yours. And however, you like to celebrate your loved one’s day in Aurora, know that Mayor Irvin and the city of Aurora support you.”
Parks wants the community to continue to say the names of these men well beyond the evening’s event.
“These were five extraordinary men who obviously left a really large impact on everybody that they touched,” she said. “They lit up rooms, they were energetic, they were family men. They had a lot left to give to this world and unfortunately, they don't get to give it so say their names, remember their stories and give life to their legacies.”
A granite memorial bench was revealed during the ceremony. The names of Russell Beyer, Vicente Juarez, Clayton Parks, Josh Pinkard, and Trevor Wehner are engraved underneath the words “In Remembrance of” with the tragedy date listed at the bottom. This bench, which was donated by the Henry Pratt Company, will sit outside of Aurora Police Headquarters.
