Gabby_ A Story of Courage and Hope - Alison Hanson [87]
The man fired thirty shots randomly into the line of people gathered to talk to Gabby. Police said every one of his bullets pierced a human being. Five people died at the scene, and those of us who love Gabby grieve deeply for all of them. There was a richness to each of their lives.
Gabe Zimmerman, Gabby’s community outreach director, was shot in the head and died not far from where Gabby fell. It was Gabe who had cheerfully organized the Congress on Your Corner event. At age thirty, he was handsome, charismatic, and engaged to be married. Trained as a social worker, he had a contagious devotion to public service, and Gabby really admired him and appreciated the work he did assisting her constituents. He was almost like a younger brother to her, and she saw him as an empathetic extrovert who was going places. No one knew it, but Gabby had planned that one day Gabe would become her district director, after Ron Barber retired. Had Gabe lived, there’s no doubt he would have continued to contribute to the world in meaningful ways.
John Roll, a sixty-three-year-old Republican, was the chief federal judge in Arizona. He had just attended mass and came by the event to thank Gabby for a letter she had written requesting a judicial emergency in Arizona. He and Gabby had been discussing the large volume of immigration and drug cases in Arizona’s overstretched federal courts, and she had advocated for increased funding, which Judge Roll appreciated. He had served with distinction on the federal bench since he was appointed there in 1991 by President George H. W. Bush. As a jurist, he was considered fair-minded and compassionate, a man who always tried to find time to talk to law students and answer their questions. He was the father of three sons and had five grandchildren.
Phyllis Schneck, seventy-nine, was a homemaker from New Jersey who came to Tucson each winter. She had lost her husband to cancer after a fifty-six-year marriage, and her life was now focused on her church and her three children and seven grandchildren. Her family later described her to the media as a voracious reader and “a frustrated librarian.” She had even catalogued her collection of National Geographic magazines according to the Dewey Decimal System so her kids could easily find information for their school reports. Phyllis was a Republican who wasn’t politically active. Still, she came to meet Gabby to discuss her concerns about border security.
Dorothy Morris, a seventy-six-year-old retired secretary, had attended the event with her husband, George, a retired United Airlines pilot. They’d been married fifty-five years and friends said they were inseparable. George, a former Marine, instinctively tried to save Dorothy’s life by pushing her to the ground and covering her with his own body. He was shot in the shoulder, had a broken rib and a punctured lung, but survived. Dorothy, known affectionately as “Dot,” died underneath him.
Dorwan Stoddard, also seventy-six, came to meet Gabby with his wife, Mavanell. The couple had known each other in high school, but spent most of their lives married to other people. They reconnected after they were both widowed, and married in 1996. Dorwan, a retired road-grader, traveled the country with “Mavy” in a motor home. When the shooting started, he and Mavy dropped to the ground and Dorwan got on top of her to protect her. Mavy was shot three times in her legs. Dorwan died while saving her life.
The youngest shooting victim, nine-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, was shot in the chest. She had come to the event with a fifty-eight-year-old family friend, Suzi Hileman, because she had a growing interest in government and politics. On the drive over to the Safeway, she was still unsure of what question she’d ask Gabby. While she was standing in line, Suzi leaned down next to her and said, “Someday, when you grow up, you could be like Gabrielle Giffords.” Suzi later told me those were the last words the little girl heard before she