Funeral services held in Riverside for Damian Meins
Funeral services were held in Riverside Friday for Damian Meins, one of 14 people who was killed in the mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
Meins, 58, of Riverside, died in the Dec. 2 massacre that is being investigated by the FBI as an act of terrorism carried out by a radicalized couple who were ultimately killed in an exchange of gunfire with police.
A UC Riverside graduate who worked for nearly three decades for Riverside County before taking a job at the San Bernardino County health department, Meins was remembered at St. Catherine of Alexandria Church, 7005 Brockton Ave. Meins, who was originally from San Pedro, worked on after-school programs at the St. Catherine of Alexandria School, and would dress as Santa
Claus during the holidays.
He was married with two adult daughters.
Funeral services for the 14 victims of the shooting began Thursday and will continue into next week, primarily in San Bernardino County.
The shooting occurred around 11 a.m. Dec. 2, leaving 14 people dead and 22 others injured. After an extensive manhunt, the shooters — Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27 — were killed in a gun battle with police about seven hours after the shooting.
Authorities said Farook dropped off the couple’s 6-month-old daughter with his mother prior to the morning shooting, saying he and his wife had a doctor’s appointment. The couple had been married for about two years.
FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday the couple had become “radicalized” long before the shooting, even prior to being married. Farook brought Malik to the United States in 2014. She entered the country on a fiancee visa.
Intelligence sources said Malik posted a statement of allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi online just before the killing began, and an ISIS online radio broadcast said Farook and Malik were ISIS supporters.
Farook was an employee of the San Bernardino County Public Health Department and had been at an agency holiday party the morning of the shooting, but left and returned with his wife to carry out the shooting, authorities said.
Also killed in the shooting were: Sierra Clayborn of Moreno Valley, 27; Aurora Godoy of San Jacinto, 26; Yvette Velasco, 27, of Fontana; Robert Adams, 40, of Yucaipa; Isaac Amanios, 60, of Fontana; Bennetta Bet-Badal, 46, of Rialto; Harry Bowman, 46, of Upland; Tin Nguyen, 31, of Santa Ana; Juan Espinoza, 50, of Highland; Shannon Johnson of Los Angeles, 45; Larry Kaufman of Rialto, 42; Nicholas Thalasinos of Colton, 52; and Michael Wetzel of Lake Arrowhead, 37.
