Candlelight vigil is held for victims, families at scene of Orange mass shooting

Hundreds of people on Sunday evening attended a vigil for victims of a mass shooting in Orange last week that took the lives of four people, including a 9-year-old boy, and left his mother in a hospital in critical condition.

Four large photos of the victims lined a chain-link fence blocking entrance into the front of the office building where the shooting unfolded Wednesday. Above the photo of a smiling Matthew Farias, the boy who died: A stuffed animal dog and a small Spider-Man costume.

His brother Luis Tovar Jr. said Spider-Man was Matthew’s favorite superhero. He once wore the costume for a week straight.

The stuffed dog, named Ruby, was a lookalike of the boy’s favorite pet at home, said his aunt, Teresa Farias.

Before the ceremony began, some of the approximately 200 people attendance stood in front of the photos, and hugged and kissed them. Bouquets of flowers extended out of each side of the photo display, lining the fence down the sidewalk. Candles were later lit in honor of the victims.

The victims included Gonzalez, 44, faces four counts of murder for the slayings of Jenevieve Raygoza, 28; Luis Tovar, 50; Leticia Solis Guzman, 58; and Matthew Farias, 9. The alleged gunman also faces three attempted murder charges related to Matthews’ mother, Blanca Ismeralda Tamayo, who remains at a hospital in critical condition, and two police officers, who were not injured. Family members have set up a GoFundMe page to help raise donations for Tamayo’s medical expenses.”>Luis Tovar, 50, the owner of Unified Homes, a mobile home sales company where the shootings happened; his daughter Jenevieve Raygoza, 28; Leticia Solis Guzman, 58; and Matthew.

Guzman worked at Unified Homes with Tovar and Blanca Ismeralda Tamayo, Matthew’s mother, who remained in critical condition on Sunday, family members said.

“I’ve experienced every single emotion you could,” said her son Luis Tovar Jr. “I feel like it fades in and out, just trying to wake up from it. I wake up in the mornings and think it’s a dream, and it’s really not. It eats me up every day and I lost all of them.”

Tovar Jr. said his mother appears to be doing better. She was critically wounded in the shooting, but a recovery feels “promising,” he said.

“The only thing that gives me hope and clears my mind is after I go visit my mom, because she’s still here and she has a real big chance of making it out,” he said.

With eyes red from tears, Teresa Farias’ said the loss of her nephew was “devastating.” A happy and loving child, Matthew always acted older than his age, she said.

“Even though he was little, his mind was a grownup’s,” she said.

The shooting rampage unfolded at around 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Two officers responding to multiple reports of shots fired at 202 W. Lincoln Avenue were met by gunfire at a business complex where the offices of Unified Homes are located, and where the entryways had been secured shut with bicycle cable locks.

The accused shooter, Aminadab Gaxiola Gonzalez, 44, wielded a Glock semi-automatic handgun, police said. He was struck in the head by a shot fired from an officer’s rifle.

Police later said they found he had ammunition, pepper spray and handcuffs.

On Saturday, Gonzalez’s ex-wife Aleyda Mendoza said she was horrified by the massacre and had no idea why it happened.

“I can’t understand what went through his head to make such a terrifying decision,” Mendoza said in a text to the Southern California News Group.

“I don’t have the words to describe the pain and horror that this tragedy has caused me – this should have never happened,” she said in the statement. “My heart is crushed, I still can’t accept that this happened, I keep closing my eyes and praying to God this is all just a bad dream and I’ll wake up soon.”

Gonzalez faces four counts of murder for the slayings of Tovar, Raygoza, Guzman and Farias.

The accused gunman also faces three attempted murder charges related to Tamayo and two police officers. The officers were not injured.

An alleged special circumstance for multiple murders would make Gonzalez eligible for the death penalty, should prosecutors opt to pursue it. Gonzalez, who as of Friday was still unconscious at a hospital, has not entered a plea.

Authorities have not outlined an exact motive for the killings, though their working theory of the case involves a personal conflict between Tovar, who owned the business, and Gonzalez.

Luis Tovar Jr. last week recalled meeting Gonzalez at family events, but said he saw no signs of tension between Gonzalez or anyone in his family. He knew of no link between the family and Gonzalez, other than Gonzalez’s ex-wife once working for Unified Homes, and didn’t know why his family, and particularly the boy, would apparently be targeted.

“He was just trying to cause as much damage as he could,” Tovar Jr. said Saturday.

GoFundMe pages have been set up for victims and families:

Matthew Farias

Jenevieve Raygoza (she also spelled her name with a G)

Leticia Solis Guzman

Blanca Ismeralda Tamayo

All victims

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