On Friday, Aug. 25, classic rock played from a speaker at Cook’s Corner as people were able to get up close for the first time in two days, dropping by with flowers and words of support.
Patrons there Wednesday night when a gunman opened fire killing three and wounding six more, stopped by to pick up their cars and motorcycles and personal belongings now that investigators had finished scouring the scene.
Still shaken from the violence that had found its way to this roadhouse grill tucked away in Trabuco Canyon, staff and volunteers poured in to help however they could. The memories and fears of the night are still so raw for so many who had expected a fun night out having all-you-can-eat spaghetti and listening to the M Street cover band.
The five-member band was a few songs into its setlist, playing Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon, when Debbie Johnson of Newport Beach, the band’s singer, said the first shots were fired, one hitting and killing Tonya Clark, 49, of Scottsdale, Arizona, there celebrating a birthday. John Patrick Snowling, 59, also shot his estranged wife in those initial moments, officials have said.
“I thought it was a joke. It’s startling and out of nowhere, we thought it was a very poor birthday gag. I thought ‘What kind of freak would think that was funny,’” Johnson said. “We’re still just standing there and nobody is jumping up, nobody is running. It was like a stunned sort of silence except for him. And then that only lasted a second, and he turns around and shoots at the people in front of us.”
Johnson said she and her husband, Mark, the band’s keyboardist, hid behind one of the speakers, but that didn’t make them feel any safer. She said Snowling exited the building through the door closest to the stage before returning and shooting two more of her bandmates, Dave Stretch and Ed Means, who were released Friday from the hospital.
“There was certainly at some point in my mind, a bit of a fugue state where you…
Read the full article here
