A group of local church members pray for residents who live in the neighborhood where Wednesday's police shootout with suspects took place, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015, in San Bernardino, Calif. Multiple attackers opened fire on a banquet at a social services center for the disabled in San Bernardino on Wednesday, killing multiple people and sending police on a manhunt for suspects. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson) (The Associated Press)
Fourteen people were killed Wednesday when a county restaurant inspector and his wife opened fire on his co-workers at a staff holiday banquet in San Bernardino County, California. Here are some of their stories.
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Damian Meins, 58, was passionate about serving his community, a message he took from the priests at his Catholic high school in Riverside and carried throughout his life.
Meins never strayed far from his church or its teachings, said Walter Hackett, who met Meins some 40-years ago in high school. "Service to others, helping others. He very much took that to heart," said Hackett.
"Damian was a good, good guy. Funny and smart and tall. A real quick smile, very friendly and outgoing," Hackett said. "It's a real hard hit for all of us who knew him."
Meins married his high school sweetheart, now a Catholic school principal, and they raised two daughters, one a teacher. Meins was fondly remembered as the guy who dressed up as Santa for school pictures, according to a parent's social media posting Thursday.
Meins' Facebook page, where he can be seen smiling with his family in front of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, says he studied business administration at the University of Redlands starting in 1991. In 1979, he graduated from UC Riverside. He was also retired from the County of Riverside after working there for 28 years.
In addition to working at the in the public health department in San Bernardino, Meins was an Extended Care Coordinator at St. Catherine of Alexandria School in Riverside, where he also helped kids create Christmas art projects and religious murals, Hackett said.
Meins received a Community Recognition Award for his work in Riverside, which was based on "compassion, courage, forgiveness, generosity, humility, inclusiveness, integrity, kindness, respect and service."
According to the Press-Enterprise, he was the first victim identified. A living Rosary for the Meins family was held Thursday.
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From Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg:
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