COPLEY TWP.: Three hundred people gathered in a park here just hours after a mass killing that claimed eight lives on Sunday. They held candles, sang and prayed.
“Someone’s crying Lord, Kumbaya,” the hundreds sang as Copley Township came together at a candlelight vigil following the shocking news that broke earlier in the day: A man shot and killed seven people before dying in a gun battle with police.
“Father God, we turn to you in our time of trouble, and this is troubling,” said the Rev. Jeff Bogue, senior pastor of Grace Church of Greater Akron.
The pastor asked the crowd that gathered at Copley Community Park, west of the shooting scene on Good- enough Avenue and Schocalog Road, to reflect on several questions:
“Why such evil would come to our little township, Lord? Why we have to endure through that and why these families are affected in such a way?”
Those questions, he said, “are some of the great mysteries of life and faith,.
“I know we will never fully understand, but I also know that we can trust you in that you are not threatened or angered by our questions,” he said.
The vigil was announced in the early afternoon, only a few hours after the shooting spree around 11 a.m., but the parking lots at the park were full for the 7:30 p.m. event.
“I am supporting the community,” said Dawn Khan of Copley Township, who attended even though she did not know any of the victims.
“This is an 11-year-old child that’s gone,” she said of one of the victims. “My son is that age.”
Donald Morris, 66, said he used to live near the shooting scene and knew some of the victims.
His daughter, Jennifer Selzer, 40, called the incident “senseless and tragic.”
She heard about it on the social media website Facebook.
The victims of the shooting have not been identified by authorities, who said details would be available at a news conference at noon today.
An eyewitness to one of the shootings and neighbors and friends at the vigil identified some of the victims as husband and wife Russell and Gudrun Johnson; their adult son, Brian Johnson; their granddaughter, 17-year-old Autumn Johnson; and Scott Dieter, an 11-year-old from Kentucky who was visiting his aunt. Neighbors said the alleged shooter was the longtime boyfriend of Scott’s aunt, Becky Dieter, who was believed to be at an area hospital Sunday evening.
Neighbors knew the alleged shooter’s first name only.
At least 100 of the people at Sunday’s vigil were Copley High School students.
Teenagers poured onto the site, most in tears, some hand-in-hand.
Senior Matt Reinke, 18, said his uncle, Bill Jacob, and Russell Johnson were members of a small breakfast club of men who would meet on the first of every month.
Reinke said he was a friend of Autumn Johnson.
“You don’t expect this to happen in little Copley.”
Copley High student Dana Aspenwall, 16, spoke of Autumn through her tears.
“I still have the purple hair color I put on her hair,’’ she said.
Tori Darden, 17, also a Copley High student, said she and Autumn had just gone to Walmart and the park on Wednesday.
Chantell Wirz, whose family has lived in the small neighborhood for generations, recently bought a home in the neighborhood. “I just saw Autumn walking down the road the other day. It’s such a small neighborhood. We all know one another so well. There are just no words to describe,’’ she said, her voice fading. “It’s so hard to believe this happened in this small town.
“The last time I saw Russ it was here, at the park. He loved the outdoors. We talked for half an hour.’’
Her daughter, Hannah Selzer, 15, a junior at Copley High, knew some of the victims as well, including a classmate who was killed.
Before the vigil, Hannah was swinging on a swing set at the park, she said, in hopes that she could keep her emotions in check.
“I don’t like crying,” she said.
Another township resident, Diane Comely, came to the vigil not knowing any of the victims.
“You wonder about people in general, period, because you don’t know. You just don’t know,” she said, calling the shooting “a complete and utter shock.”
Terry Turner of Copley Township said she hoped to help by attending the vigil.
“The Lord is the most important relationship in my life, and he is the one who gives comfort to the people who need to be comforted. And I wanted to take part in releasing that comfort to people,” she said.
Township Trustee Dale Panovich told the crowd that she had just returned from visiting members of the victims’ families.
“It’s a sad day in Copley,” she said.
Trustee Scott Dressler praised the community for turning out to support the victims.
“It is a horrific tragedy,” he said.
Pastor Bogue asked the 300 at the vigil to pray not only for the victims, but also for the community and police and all safety forces “who have been through so much” on Sunday.
“We feel this together,” he said. “Help us and heal us and give us strength.”
A Johnson Family Memorial Fund will be started today at PNC Bank. A Johnson Family Memorial Wall page has also been started on Facebook.
Staff writer Betty Lin-Fisher contributed to this report.
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.
Kathy Antoniotti can be reached at 330-996-3565 or kantoniotti@thebeaconjournal.com.
