Friends of Shareef Allman, the suspect in the fatal workplace shootings in Cupertino, reacted with sorrow and regret Thursday that another life had been lost -- and that the man they knew as a pillar of the African American community and a kind-hearted mediator of conflict will never be able to explain his actions.
While law-enforcement officials have not yet made a positive identification, a man matching the description of Allman was shot and killed by Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies on a residential driveway early Thursday, in the heart of the neighborhood where an intensive manhunt had taken place after Wednesday’s shootings.
Shortly after hearing the news, Rev. Jethroe "Jeff" Moore II, the head of the Silicon Valley NAACP, and longtime community activist Walter Wilson jumped into a car to seek out Allman's 17-year-old daughter, known to all Allman's friends, Moore said, as "the love of his life."
"We are devastated by the loss of life," Moore said of the addition of the 47-year-old Allman to the tally of three killed at his alleged hands at Lehigh Southwest Cement's Permanente plant on Wednesday. "They just closed the book and we’ll never know what page was ripped from it.... For my own selfish reasons I wish he had been taken alive so we could at least have had some conversation or explanation."
Moore expressed condolences to the "three other families who have been devastated by this. To get up to go to work and never come back, it’s a shock," he said. "As a community, we are hurt and at a loss for the proper words."
Yet the overwhelming emotion by those who knew Allman was one of stunned confusion. Moore, who met Allman years ago before each turned to Christianity, said his strapping friend was always well-dressed and well-spoken. "He was a ladies man and I thought I was too," he said with a laugh about their early shenanigans.
No comments:
Post a Comment