Funerals Go on for San Bernardino Terror Victims

Three of the 14 victims of the December 2 San Bernardino terrorist attack were laid to rest Saturday. Family, friends and concerned residents gathered to give their support to those mourning the loss of Isaac Amanois, 60; Tin Nguyen, 31; and Shannon Johnson, 43.

“Tin is the love of my life,” her fiancé Haisan Trinh, 32, said, according to the Orange County Register. “We had our whole life planned. The wedding ceremony was actually going to be here, at St. Barbara’s church” in 2017.

Nguyen, a food inspector for the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, moved to the United States from Vietnam at a young age and graduated from Valley High School in Santa Ana and Cal State Fullerton. She was described as “an angel” and the “super glue” of her family by loved ones.

Amanois was buried at the St. Mina Coptic Orthodox Church in Colton. According to ABC7, he moved from Africa to the U.S. in 2007 seeking a better life. The husband and father of three reportedly fought in the Eritrean independence struggle during the 1960s.

Georgia native Johnson was buried in his hometown of Jesup, where approximately 200 people reportedly filled a church to honor his memory. Johnson is being hailed as a hero for shielding one of his newlywed co-workers from bullets. “I believe I am still here today because of this amazing man,” Denise Peraza, 27, had written in a letter from the hospital where she was recovering shortly after the attack took place.

On Friday, over a thousand people attended the funeral of Damien Meins, a man described by his friends as “the best guy in the world.”

On Thursday, 27-year-old Yvette Velasco, the youngest daughter in a family of four sisters, a mother and a father, was the first to be laid to rest. “She was more than our sister,” Velasco’s sister, Erica Porteous, 37, told Southern California Public Radio (SCPR). “She was our soul mate.”

Bennetta Betbadal is scheduled to be buried on Monday, December 14, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church located at 12704 Foothill Blvd., Rancho Cucamonga.

Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz and on Facebook.