The tragic and senseless shooting in San Bernardino, California left 14 people dead and left a man whose boyfriend worked in the Inland Regional Center (IRC) with the most difficult 22 hours anyone could imagine.
Ryan Reyes dropped off his boyfriend, Daniel Kaufman, at his job on Wednesday at 7 AM. Kaufman, 42, trained developmentally disabled clients that worked at the coffee shop he ran, Coffee N More. At 10:37 AM, about 3 hours later, Kaufman sent Reyes a picture of a friend he had met at a comic book conference. The next text Reyes got will leave you speechless.
About an hour after the text from Kaufman, Reyes’ sister sent Reyes a text saying:
“Hey Ry does Daniel work at the Regional Center in Sb? Check the news.”
At this point Reyes was obviously worried out of his mind for the person he loves. He proceeded to call Kaufman, but kept getting sent straight to voicemail. With intense panic understandably set in, he sent his boyfriend a text saying:
“Call me ASAP!”
The text received no answer. Kaufman’s employer, a contractor, couldn’t get into contact with Kaufman either.
Reyes eventually went to a local community center where he had heard survivors were being taken to, but after waiting he was unable to find Kaufman. A few hours later he got some good news. According to information from one of Kaufman’s client’s girlfriend given to Reyes’ cousin and then ultimately posted on Facebook, Kaufman was shot in the arm but alive. Then officials at the community center confirmed a similar story and that Kaufman was in the hospital, but they did not know which hospital. A frantic search by family and friends ensued. They called 6 hospitals and even drove to one to personally check, but Kaufman was nowhere to be found.
Even as the last bus arrived at the community center, Kaufman was nowhere to be found. Kaufman and his family were the last ones at the community center waiting for their loved one to arrive, safe or at the very least, alive.
Then things took a turn for the worse. With no clear evidence Kaufman was alive, officials informed the family that the bodies were still at the crime scene so they would need a physical description. After Reyes’ gave the description of the man he so dearly loved he proceeded to go home where he took four sleeping pills to sleep through the dreaded night.
At 10:38 AM the next morning, the most devastating possible outcome proved true. Kaufman’s aunt who had adopted him after he lost both his parents called Reyes and informed him that she had learned that Kaufman was gone.
What we need to take from this senseless tragedy is that life matters more than the NRA’s lobby or a person’s right to buy a weapon without even a background check. How many tragedies will it take for these to people to wake up? We as the people have to stand up to lobbyists and do what is best for the people.
Featured Image via Lloyd Morgan at Flickr, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
