Kailee Wetzel’s fondest memory of her dad was from a beach camping trip when he picked her up and carried her to the rock ledge because she was afraid to walk up to it.
Michael Wetzel was one of 14 people slain in a Dec. 2, 2015 terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino when a county employee and his wife barged into an office holiday party armed with assault rifles and pistols and gunned down those who were gathered. Twenty-two others were injured in the attack.
Six years later, the large bronze bell tolled Thursday afternoon in Cal State San Bernardino’s Peace Garden, which was created a year after the attack to honor the memory of the victims, as 18-year-old Kailee Wetzel remembered her father, flanked by her fiancé, grandparents and younger sister. She was just 12 at the time of her father’s death.
“This is a hard time for all of us,” she said. “This is my first time coming to this memorial and I was struck by how respectfully it was done.”
The brief ceremony, which was also live-streamed via Zoom, began and ended with 14 rings of the bell to mark the memory of each victim.
Five of the 14 people killed by Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, were graduates of the university: Robert Adams (public health education, 2011); Juan Espinoza (biology, 2002); Shannon Johnson (environmental health science, 2004); Yvette Velasco (environmental health science, 2013); and Kailee’s father, Michael Wetzel (biology, 2001).
The university created the tradition “so we would always have a special time and a special place to cherish their lives that continue to mean so much to every single one of us,” said Sastry Pantula, dean of the College of Natural Sciences.
“Your lives touched so many,” he said, remembering the victims. “Your service and passion were examples for us to emulate.”
In an emotional tribute, William Vandyke, a lecturer with the Department of Health Science and Human Ecology, said the departed are still missed, loved and cherished.
“We cannot reach out to hold them in a warm embrace, but these beloved souls are with us every second,” he said. “They are a part of the fabric that makes us whole woven into every stitch of who we are. They are the voice inside us that reminds us to be open to new experiences and to be skeptical of worldly things. They guide us, shape us and bless us continually with their love.”
Family members and other attendees placed flowers at the base of the bell after the ceremony.
Robert Velasco, father of Yvette Velasco, said he and his wife, Marivel, have attended the ceremony on campus every year it has been held.
“They never seem to forget and it’s very touching to us,” he said. “We feel like it’s not just us who remember her, but also all these other people.”
Walking into the campus also brings fond memories for the father who remembers dropping off his daughter when she didn’t have a car of her own.
“I still hear from some of her professors who remember her and talk about what kind of student she was,” he said. “That’s so special.”
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6 years later, terror attack victims remembered at Cal State San Bernardino memorial - San Bernardino County Sun
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