Refugee/Migrant Crisis
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'ONE OF THE LUCKY ONES': Saudi teen looking forward to new life in Canada
Liz Braun
Published:
January 15, 2019
Updated:
January 15, 2019 9:24 PM EST
It was a proud moment for Canada when Rahaf Mohammed said, “I am one of the lucky ones. I found a safe country to live in.”
The Saudi Arabian teenager held a press conference Tuesday morning in Toronto to thank all those who helped her flee oppression at home and find her way to safety in Canada.
She also held the conference to ask for relief from an overwhelming media response to her situation — she now wants to get on with the business of learning English and settling into her new home in this country.
Though a translator (Dr. Saba Abbas), Mohammed spoke of gratitude for all the offers of help she has received since her arrival in Canada on Saturday. The young woman left her home Jan. 5 and made it to Bangkok, where she hid out in a hotel room at the airport and used social media to tell the world of her desire to lead a free life. She was eventually granted asylum in Canada.
She said she is looking forward to being independent and to travelling.
Saudi woman granted asylum in Canada arrives in T.O.
Canada grants asylum to Saudi woman Rahaf Alqunun: PM
FATAH: How Twitter saved life of Saudi rebel who rejected Islam
“I want to make my own decisions on education, a career, or who and when I should marry. I had no say in any of this,” she said. “Today I can proudly say that I am capable of making all of those decisions.”
Mohammed, who has dropped the surname al-Qunun since being publicly disowned by her family, spoke with strength and courage in front of the media. According to Mario Calla, executive director of COSTI immigrant services, Mohammed is doing fine and has even been to the mall to buy winter clothes and get a phone. She is delighted by the support she has encountered thus far.
As with many immigrants, of course, “the big challenge is the loss of family, friends and culture,” he said. How that will affect Mohammed down the road remains to be seen.
“So far, we have seen no signs of distress,” Calla added.
Social media stands firmly at the centre of Mohammed’s flight to freedom.
It has been a blessing and a curse, with Twitter first attracting international attention to the young Saudi woman’s plight and helping her get to Canada, but now bringing threats to her security. “It’s a bit of minefield,” Calla understated.
Those threats are taken seriously, he added. Mohammed currently has a guard with her. She is never alone and her future living arrangements will likely be with a family, both for the obvious emotional reasons and for personal safety.
Rahaf Mohammed speaks to the media flanked by Dr. Saba Abbas (R) , her settlement worker/translator, at the COSTI Corvetti Education Centre in Toronto on January 15, 2019. Jack Boland/Toronto Sun
Calla praised Mohammed’s strength and spoke of the 60 million refugees on our planet. “Less than a third of 1% get resettled,” he said.
“Every person who has a safe future — it’s a huge victory.”
Mohammed said she will not squander the new opportunity Canada has provided.
“Today and for years to come, I will work in support of freedom for women around the world,” she said. “The same freedom I experienced on the first day I arrived in Canada.”
lbraun@postmedia.com
http://torontosun.com/news/local-news/saudi-teen-granted-asylum-in-canada-wants-to-help-other-women
Liz Braun
Published:
January 15, 2019
Updated:
January 15, 2019 9:24 PM EST
It was a proud moment for Canada when Rahaf Mohammed said, “I am one of the lucky ones. I found a safe country to live in.”
The Saudi Arabian teenager held a press conference Tuesday morning in Toronto to thank all those who helped her flee oppression at home and find her way to safety in Canada.
She also held the conference to ask for relief from an overwhelming media response to her situation — she now wants to get on with the business of learning English and settling into her new home in this country.
Though a translator (Dr. Saba Abbas), Mohammed spoke of gratitude for all the offers of help she has received since her arrival in Canada on Saturday. The young woman left her home Jan. 5 and made it to Bangkok, where she hid out in a hotel room at the airport and used social media to tell the world of her desire to lead a free life. She was eventually granted asylum in Canada.
She said she is looking forward to being independent and to travelling.
Saudi woman granted asylum in Canada arrives in T.O.
Canada grants asylum to Saudi woman Rahaf Alqunun: PM
FATAH: How Twitter saved life of Saudi rebel who rejected Islam
“I want to make my own decisions on education, a career, or who and when I should marry. I had no say in any of this,” she said. “Today I can proudly say that I am capable of making all of those decisions.”
Mohammed, who has dropped the surname al-Qunun since being publicly disowned by her family, spoke with strength and courage in front of the media. According to Mario Calla, executive director of COSTI immigrant services, Mohammed is doing fine and has even been to the mall to buy winter clothes and get a phone. She is delighted by the support she has encountered thus far.
As with many immigrants, of course, “the big challenge is the loss of family, friends and culture,” he said. How that will affect Mohammed down the road remains to be seen.
“So far, we have seen no signs of distress,” Calla added.
Social media stands firmly at the centre of Mohammed’s flight to freedom.
It has been a blessing and a curse, with Twitter first attracting international attention to the young Saudi woman’s plight and helping her get to Canada, but now bringing threats to her security. “It’s a bit of minefield,” Calla understated.
Those threats are taken seriously, he added. Mohammed currently has a guard with her. She is never alone and her future living arrangements will likely be with a family, both for the obvious emotional reasons and for personal safety.
Rahaf Mohammed speaks to the media flanked by Dr. Saba Abbas (R) , her settlement worker/translator, at the COSTI Corvetti Education Centre in Toronto on January 15, 2019. Jack Boland/Toronto Sun
Calla praised Mohammed’s strength and spoke of the 60 million refugees on our planet. “Less than a third of 1% get resettled,” he said.
“Every person who has a safe future — it’s a huge victory.”
Mohammed said she will not squander the new opportunity Canada has provided.
“Today and for years to come, I will work in support of freedom for women around the world,” she said. “The same freedom I experienced on the first day I arrived in Canada.”
lbraun@postmedia.com
Saudi teen: Starbucks, bacon, eggs and bare legs
Brad Hunter
Published:
January 16, 2019
Updated:
January 16, 2019 5:23 PM EST
Rahaf Mohammed, 18, the Saudi teen who was granted asylum in Canada, spoke to the media at the COSTI Corvetti Education Centre in Toronto on Tuesday, January 15, 2019. (Jack Boland/Toronto Sun)
Rahaf Mohammed tasted a slice of her new life in Canada by trying bacon for the first time, downing a Starbucks coffee and showing her bare legs.
The Saudi teen who was fleeing her abusive family was granted asylum last week following a desperate bid to escape the oppressive life that was ahead of her.
Mohammed, 18, claimed she feared for her life.
She tried bacon for the first time! SNAPCHAT
But now, all that’s changed.
The feisty teen took to Snapchat to show vignettes of her new life.
One was a photo of her bacon and egg breakfast — “omg bacon” — festooned with a Canadian flag emoji, the other a cup of Starbucks coffee sitting on her bare legs.
Purchased winter clothes! SNAPCHAT
She also shared a picture of her morning coffee from Starbucks, with her knee-length grey wool dress that shows off her bare legs.
Mohammed arrived in Toronto last weekend and is getting acclimatized to life in the Great White North, buying winter clothes, getting a health card, accommodation and sorting out phone service.
Bared her legs at Starbucks. SNAPCHAT
More ominously, she has a bodyguard following threats to her safety.
Costi Immigrant Services executive director Mario Calla said the courageous teen has received multiple threats online.
“She sees these threats. She has left Islam and she basically has broken away from her family, and that scares her,” Costi said.
Next stop? Learning English.
And tweeted her gratitude. TWITTER
http://torontosun.com/news/national/saudi-teen-starbucks-bacon-eggs-and-bare-legs
Brad Hunter
Published:
January 16, 2019
Updated:
January 16, 2019 5:23 PM EST
Rahaf Mohammed, 18, the Saudi teen who was granted asylum in Canada, spoke to the media at the COSTI Corvetti Education Centre in Toronto on Tuesday, January 15, 2019. (Jack Boland/Toronto Sun)
Rahaf Mohammed tasted a slice of her new life in Canada by trying bacon for the first time, downing a Starbucks coffee and showing her bare legs.
The Saudi teen who was fleeing her abusive family was granted asylum last week following a desperate bid to escape the oppressive life that was ahead of her.
Mohammed, 18, claimed she feared for her life.
She tried bacon for the first time! SNAPCHAT
But now, all that’s changed.
The feisty teen took to Snapchat to show vignettes of her new life.
One was a photo of her bacon and egg breakfast — “omg bacon” — festooned with a Canadian flag emoji, the other a cup of Starbucks coffee sitting on her bare legs.
Purchased winter clothes! SNAPCHAT
She also shared a picture of her morning coffee from Starbucks, with her knee-length grey wool dress that shows off her bare legs.
Mohammed arrived in Toronto last weekend and is getting acclimatized to life in the Great White North, buying winter clothes, getting a health card, accommodation and sorting out phone service.
Bared her legs at Starbucks. SNAPCHAT
More ominously, she has a bodyguard following threats to her safety.
Costi Immigrant Services executive director Mario Calla said the courageous teen has received multiple threats online.
“She sees these threats. She has left Islam and she basically has broken away from her family, and that scares her,” Costi said.
Next stop? Learning English.
And tweeted her gratitude. TWITTER
http://torontosun.com/news/national/saudi-teen-starbucks-bacon-eggs-and-bare-legs
Should read the article it says different than you, I said it was right to bring her here I just don't like how the Libs. are parading her around, and by who is using her as a trophy.
Yup she fears for her life going home , yet here the liberals are splashing her all over the news as if it doesn’t get seen back home . I hate to say it but that one security guard may not be enough . If the Saudi’s can drag people into their embassy in Turkey and torture and kill them , why not here ?
She will shortly fade from the news here as the Liberals and the media move onto their next toy .
Defined as "the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning."
Yep, words have meanings. If they don't, then I can truthfully say I f*cked your mother, then dismiss your objections on the grounds that "f*ck" means sexual intercourse and "mother" means the woman who gave birth to you are just "semantics."
The end result was the same , however he got their . Sorry I was not interested in the story enough that I am remember all details .
LILLEY: Trudeau's border mistakes to blame for shelter mess
Brian Lilley
Published:
January 22, 2019
Updated:
January 22, 2019 7:13 PM EST
Good Shephard Refuge Centre at 412 Queen St. E. in Toronto, Ont. on March 2, 2018. (Ernest Doroszuk, Toronto Sun)
If there is a crisis in housing the homeless in some of Canada’s biggest city shelters, then the problem lies squarely at the feet of one man, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It is rare for me to blame a federal politician for failing to deal with an issue that is clearly within provincial or municipal jurisdiction. But in this case, the blame goes to the feds for one simple reason: Illegal border crossers.
As a cold snap grips Eastern Canada, shelter systems in some of Canada’s biggest cities are struggling to cope with the number of people seeking a place to stay and a large part of that is due to refugee/asylum seekers that have been pouring across the border illegally since early 2017.
On Monday night, a bitterly cold night in Toronto, there were 6,844 people in shelters, a number that Mayor John Tory says was about 40% refugee/asylum seekers.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives for a cabinet meeting in Sherbrooke, Que., on Jan. 16, 2019. (The Canadian Press)
That means roughly 2,738 people that were in the shelters were people seeking refuge in Canada, most of them having crossed illegally into Canada at Roxham Rd. on the Quebec-New York border.
That’s more than the total that the RCMP intercepted coming into Canada illegally in all of 2016.
That figure is important because since 2016, Toronto’s shelter system has seen a dramatic increase in people seeking assistance, driven in large part by people that Trudeau invited into this country with his infamous tweet.
In 2016 the Mounties apprehended just 2,464 entering the country illegally. By 2017, the number was 20,593 and in 2018, 19,419.
In that same time, the average number of people seeking assistance in Toronto’s shelters grew from 4,189 in December 2016 to 6,702 seeking assistance in December, 2018.
On Monday night, that number was 6,844.
Mayor John Tory says the federal government needs to do more. Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson’s message is similar.
Watson penned a letter to federal Social Services Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, asking for funding to compensate the city for the strain on its social services due to refugee claimants.
Watson noted that city shelters are at capacity and so far, the feds have not provided any additional funding to compensate for the increased costs brought about by the refugee surge.
“Last year, City of Ottawa taxpayers absorbed an estimated $5.7-million budget pressure, due to families crossing the border into Canada; this pressure is anticipated to rise to $6.2 million for 2018,” Watson wrote.
While the nearly $12 million in additional costs pales in comparison to the $75 million that Mayor Tory has said Toronto taxpayers have absorbed, it shows the problem is widespread.
LILLEY: Union boss calls Ford ‘most dangerous premier’
LILLEY: For Trudeau, it’s all about electoral politics
LILLEY: Time to take local health networks off life-support
Montreal, the city at the centre of much of the refugee crisis is also experiencing shelters at capacity.
Homelessness advocates are trying to portray the current situation as a crisis, an epidemic, that requires a national response. While a national response may be necessary, it isn’t because there is a surge in homelessness but because the Trudeau government is letting a problem at the border fester.
The homelessness industry is simply using this to call for more funding for their cause.
But they were singing the same tune 10 years ago when numbers were lower, they were singing the same tune two years ago when the number of people seeking shelter on an average night in Toronto alone was 2,600 lower than it is now.
That increase, that pressure, and the costs that go with it are directly attributable to the border crisis that the Trudeau Liberals won’t deal with.
The same crisis that has seen 40,000 people cross into Canada from the United States, illegally, sucking up resources not only from the immigration and refugee system, but from social services, as well.
There is a crisis, but it isn’t the one that the homelessness advocates claim, it is one of Trudeau’s making and one that he, and he alone, can solve.
http://torontosun.com/news/national/lilley-trudeaus-border-mistakes-to-blame-for-shelter-mess
Brian Lilley
Published:
January 22, 2019
Updated:
January 22, 2019 7:13 PM EST
Good Shephard Refuge Centre at 412 Queen St. E. in Toronto, Ont. on March 2, 2018. (Ernest Doroszuk, Toronto Sun)
If there is a crisis in housing the homeless in some of Canada’s biggest city shelters, then the problem lies squarely at the feet of one man, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It is rare for me to blame a federal politician for failing to deal with an issue that is clearly within provincial or municipal jurisdiction. But in this case, the blame goes to the feds for one simple reason: Illegal border crossers.
As a cold snap grips Eastern Canada, shelter systems in some of Canada’s biggest cities are struggling to cope with the number of people seeking a place to stay and a large part of that is due to refugee/asylum seekers that have been pouring across the border illegally since early 2017.
On Monday night, a bitterly cold night in Toronto, there were 6,844 people in shelters, a number that Mayor John Tory says was about 40% refugee/asylum seekers.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives for a cabinet meeting in Sherbrooke, Que., on Jan. 16, 2019. (The Canadian Press)
That means roughly 2,738 people that were in the shelters were people seeking refuge in Canada, most of them having crossed illegally into Canada at Roxham Rd. on the Quebec-New York border.
That’s more than the total that the RCMP intercepted coming into Canada illegally in all of 2016.
That figure is important because since 2016, Toronto’s shelter system has seen a dramatic increase in people seeking assistance, driven in large part by people that Trudeau invited into this country with his infamous tweet.
In 2016 the Mounties apprehended just 2,464 entering the country illegally. By 2017, the number was 20,593 and in 2018, 19,419.
In that same time, the average number of people seeking assistance in Toronto’s shelters grew from 4,189 in December 2016 to 6,702 seeking assistance in December, 2018.
On Monday night, that number was 6,844.
Mayor John Tory says the federal government needs to do more. Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson’s message is similar.
Watson penned a letter to federal Social Services Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, asking for funding to compensate the city for the strain on its social services due to refugee claimants.
Watson noted that city shelters are at capacity and so far, the feds have not provided any additional funding to compensate for the increased costs brought about by the refugee surge.
“Last year, City of Ottawa taxpayers absorbed an estimated $5.7-million budget pressure, due to families crossing the border into Canada; this pressure is anticipated to rise to $6.2 million for 2018,” Watson wrote.
While the nearly $12 million in additional costs pales in comparison to the $75 million that Mayor Tory has said Toronto taxpayers have absorbed, it shows the problem is widespread.
LILLEY: Union boss calls Ford ‘most dangerous premier’
LILLEY: For Trudeau, it’s all about electoral politics
LILLEY: Time to take local health networks off life-support
Montreal, the city at the centre of much of the refugee crisis is also experiencing shelters at capacity.
Homelessness advocates are trying to portray the current situation as a crisis, an epidemic, that requires a national response. While a national response may be necessary, it isn’t because there is a surge in homelessness but because the Trudeau government is letting a problem at the border fester.
The homelessness industry is simply using this to call for more funding for their cause.
But they were singing the same tune 10 years ago when numbers were lower, they were singing the same tune two years ago when the number of people seeking shelter on an average night in Toronto alone was 2,600 lower than it is now.
That increase, that pressure, and the costs that go with it are directly attributable to the border crisis that the Trudeau Liberals won’t deal with.
The same crisis that has seen 40,000 people cross into Canada from the United States, illegally, sucking up resources not only from the immigration and refugee system, but from social services, as well.
There is a crisis, but it isn’t the one that the homelessness advocates claim, it is one of Trudeau’s making and one that he, and he alone, can solve.
http://torontosun.com/news/national/lilley-trudeaus-border-mistakes-to-blame-for-shelter-mess
Man linked to four killings suspected of being in U.S. illegally
Associated Press
Published:
January 22, 2019
Updated:
January 22, 2019 8:04 PM EST
This undated photo provided by the Carson City Sheriff's Office in Carson City, Nev., shows suspect Wilbur Martinez-Guzman. (Carson City Sheriff's Office via AP)AP
LAS VEGAS — A man suspected of being in the U.S. illegally shot and killed four people in Nevada over the past two weeks, including an elderly Reno couple, authorities said, and the slayings added fuel to the immigration debate.
Wilbur Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, 19, from El Salvador, has been jailed in Carson City since Saturday on possession of stolen property, burglary and immigration charges. Authorities said they expect to file murder charges against him in the shooting deaths of the couple and two women in the nearby town of Gardnerville.
Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said federal immigration authorities told his office that Martinez-Guzman was in the country illegally. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not have details on his entry into the U.S.
The investigation is ongoing, the sheriff said, and it was too early to comment on a possible motive.
Investigators who had been tracking Martinez-Guzman considered him “an imminent threat” when they arrested him Saturday afternoon in the parking lot of a shopping mall.
“We couldn’t account for him Friday night, and we couldn’t predict what he would do Saturday night,” Furlong told The Associated Press. “It was too great a risk to the public not to make the arrest.”
Detectives had watched Martinez-Guzman go to a car wash and trash bins, raising concern that he might try to dispose of evidence connected to the slayings. He did not have a weapon when he was handcuffed, the sheriff said.
The suspect did not yet have an attorney who could speak on his behalf, according to the sheriff.
President Donald Trump seized on the killings as evidence of the need for his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall.
“Four people in Nevada viciously robbed and killed by an illegal immigrant who should not have been in our Country,” Trump said Monday in a tweet. “We need a powerful Wall!”
The killings are the latest crimes Trump has cited to bring attention to the wall, which is at the centre of his battle with Democrats that has shut down much of the federal government.
Since the start of his presidency, he has highlighted crimes committed by immigrants who were here illegally, including the killing of a 32-year-old woman at a San Francisco pier in 2015. Last month, he tweeted about allegations that a man from Mexico fatally shot a California police officer.
Many academics and Trump’s critics have pushed back on the president’s narrative, citing studies that have found that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the United States.
The Nevada suspect, who was due in court Thursday, had lived in the Carson City area for about a year. His only known infraction was a speeding ticket, the sheriff said.
“We have no information this guy has ever been on anyone’s radar,” Furlong said.
The investigation began Jan. 10, when 56-year-old Connie Koontz was found dead in her home. Three days later, the body of 74-year-old Sophia Renken was discovered in her home about a mile (1.6 kilometres) from where Koontz lived, authorities said.
On Jan. 16, the bodies of 81-year-old Gerald David and his 80-year-old wife, Sharon, were found in their home on the southern edge of Reno.
The two were remembered as “jovial” by Tom Cates, a longtime friend who knew the Davids through Reno’s rodeo and equestrian scene.
Cates said Gerald David used his time as the Reno Rodeo Association president in 2006 to promote a breast cancer awareness campaign by getting the group’s cowboys to show they were “tough enough to wear pink shirts.”
“You walk into a room and his presence will just command attention. He was a true leader,” Cates said.
Sharon David was “exuberant” and “bubbly” and “loved animals to the hills,” he said. She was a former director of the rodeo.
Renken belonged to an antique automobile club and was known as the friendly driver of a Ford Model A who was always volunteering to help.
Robin Reedy, who was also in the Carson-Tahoe Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America, said she was surprised to learn Renken’s age.
“I would never have known she was 74 by the way she acted,” she said.
Koontz, who worked at a Walmart and as a manicurist at a local salon, was remembered by co-workers Tuesday as a positive woman who loved wearing bright colours. Her Walmart colleagues wore memorial buttons with her picture.
She was “the only person I know that could come to work wearing lime green glasses and lime green crocs and rock it,” said Teri Bower, who works at the store.
Koontz and her daughter were best friends, Bower said, and the mother had saved up money and surprised her daughter with a trip to Las Vegas for her 21st birthday in December.
Bower said the killings had shaken the quiet community where everyone knows everyone and big news is a pending storm “or a bear running down Main Street.”
“This does not happen around here,” Bower said. “It’s crazy.”
http://torontosun.com/news/crime/man-linked-to-four-killings-suspected-of-being-in-u-s-illegally
Associated Press
Published:
January 22, 2019
Updated:
January 22, 2019 8:04 PM EST
This undated photo provided by the Carson City Sheriff's Office in Carson City, Nev., shows suspect Wilbur Martinez-Guzman. (Carson City Sheriff's Office via AP)AP
LAS VEGAS — A man suspected of being in the U.S. illegally shot and killed four people in Nevada over the past two weeks, including an elderly Reno couple, authorities said, and the slayings added fuel to the immigration debate.
Wilbur Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, 19, from El Salvador, has been jailed in Carson City since Saturday on possession of stolen property, burglary and immigration charges. Authorities said they expect to file murder charges against him in the shooting deaths of the couple and two women in the nearby town of Gardnerville.
Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said federal immigration authorities told his office that Martinez-Guzman was in the country illegally. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not have details on his entry into the U.S.
The investigation is ongoing, the sheriff said, and it was too early to comment on a possible motive.
Investigators who had been tracking Martinez-Guzman considered him “an imminent threat” when they arrested him Saturday afternoon in the parking lot of a shopping mall.
“We couldn’t account for him Friday night, and we couldn’t predict what he would do Saturday night,” Furlong told The Associated Press. “It was too great a risk to the public not to make the arrest.”
Detectives had watched Martinez-Guzman go to a car wash and trash bins, raising concern that he might try to dispose of evidence connected to the slayings. He did not have a weapon when he was handcuffed, the sheriff said.
The suspect did not yet have an attorney who could speak on his behalf, according to the sheriff.
President Donald Trump seized on the killings as evidence of the need for his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall.
“Four people in Nevada viciously robbed and killed by an illegal immigrant who should not have been in our Country,” Trump said Monday in a tweet. “We need a powerful Wall!”
The killings are the latest crimes Trump has cited to bring attention to the wall, which is at the centre of his battle with Democrats that has shut down much of the federal government.
Since the start of his presidency, he has highlighted crimes committed by immigrants who were here illegally, including the killing of a 32-year-old woman at a San Francisco pier in 2015. Last month, he tweeted about allegations that a man from Mexico fatally shot a California police officer.
Many academics and Trump’s critics have pushed back on the president’s narrative, citing studies that have found that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the United States.
The Nevada suspect, who was due in court Thursday, had lived in the Carson City area for about a year. His only known infraction was a speeding ticket, the sheriff said.
“We have no information this guy has ever been on anyone’s radar,” Furlong said.
The investigation began Jan. 10, when 56-year-old Connie Koontz was found dead in her home. Three days later, the body of 74-year-old Sophia Renken was discovered in her home about a mile (1.6 kilometres) from where Koontz lived, authorities said.
On Jan. 16, the bodies of 81-year-old Gerald David and his 80-year-old wife, Sharon, were found in their home on the southern edge of Reno.
The two were remembered as “jovial” by Tom Cates, a longtime friend who knew the Davids through Reno’s rodeo and equestrian scene.
Cates said Gerald David used his time as the Reno Rodeo Association president in 2006 to promote a breast cancer awareness campaign by getting the group’s cowboys to show they were “tough enough to wear pink shirts.”
“You walk into a room and his presence will just command attention. He was a true leader,” Cates said.
Sharon David was “exuberant” and “bubbly” and “loved animals to the hills,” he said. She was a former director of the rodeo.
Renken belonged to an antique automobile club and was known as the friendly driver of a Ford Model A who was always volunteering to help.
Robin Reedy, who was also in the Carson-Tahoe Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America, said she was surprised to learn Renken’s age.
“I would never have known she was 74 by the way she acted,” she said.
Koontz, who worked at a Walmart and as a manicurist at a local salon, was remembered by co-workers Tuesday as a positive woman who loved wearing bright colours. Her Walmart colleagues wore memorial buttons with her picture.
She was “the only person I know that could come to work wearing lime green glasses and lime green crocs and rock it,” said Teri Bower, who works at the store.
Koontz and her daughter were best friends, Bower said, and the mother had saved up money and surprised her daughter with a trip to Las Vegas for her 21st birthday in December.
Bower said the killings had shaken the quiet community where everyone knows everyone and big news is a pending storm “or a bear running down Main Street.”
“This does not happen around here,” Bower said. “It’s crazy.”
http://torontosun.com/news/crime/man-linked-to-four-killings-suspected-of-being-in-u-s-illegally