FLORENCE, Ky. (WXIX) – The day following a mass shooting at a birthday party in Florence, friends and family have started a vigil to remember the lives taken.
Florence Police say 21-year-old Chase Garvey shot seven people at a 21st birthday party just before 3 a.m.
Officers say Garvey drove away and was found by police after shooting himself. He died at St. Elizabeth Hospital.
Four of them died at the scene and three were taken to the hospital in critical but stable condition. Police identified the four victims who were killed:
- Delaney Eary, 19 years old
- Hayden Rybicki, 20 years old
- Melissa Parrett, 44 years old
- Shane Miller, 20 years old
FOX19′s Alexis Martin spoke with friends of Hayden Rybicki who tearfully shared memories of him.
HAYDEN’S FRIENDS SAY THEY ARE GOING TO MISS HIS SMILE
Jackson Hemingway is missing his best friend of 12 years, Hayden Rybicki.
“He would always put a smile on someone’s face, doesn’t matter who it was, during the day, if it was just a random person at Walmart,” Hemingway remembers. “He would always make someone laugh or have a person to laugh at.”
Hemingway says Hayden and his friends loved to snowboard. Today he was given Hayden’s favorite beanie from their adventures.
“No matter the weather, no matter if it was raining snowing hailing if we were out snowboarding in 80-degree weather, 70-degree weather, he would always wear a beanie or some sort of hat.”
Pete Coleman says Hayden worked with him for three years.
“Everyone loved to work with him because everybody loved him,” Coleman says. “You never expect something you see that’s so horrendous and horrible that it all a sudden connects you to it. So yeah, that was, to say the least, shocking.”
Hemingway says today he was looking through some of Hayden’s stuff to find a picture of them when he found a note from Hayden in his car. He says it says a lot about who he was.
“He just always had a contagious smile,” Coleman remembers. ” Everybody I’ve talked to says the same thing. Every kid that works for me. Whoever you talk to says the same thing.
Coleman says in a community like Florence, you don’t have to know one of the victims to be impacted.
“Hug your kids a little more and tell your friends around you how much you love them,” he urges. “This is another reminder that you don’t know when that’ll be the last chance you have.”
Alexis Martin also reached out to loved ones of the other victims, but they were not ready to be interviewed.
Shane Miller’s aunt, Sheryl, sent FOX19 this statement about her nephew:
