A dad-of-two was identified on Sunday as one of the Texas mass shooting victims by his sister — who said he was killed in front of his wife and children as the family sat at a traffic light.
Former math teacher Joseph Griffith, 40, was one of the seven people killed Saturday afternoon by a gunman on a drive-by shooting spree in the Odessa area, his older sister Carla Byrne told The Washington Post.
“This maniac pulled up next to him and shot him, took away his life, murdered my baby brother. Like nothing,” Byrne said. “We are so broken.”
The family was scheduled to have their portraits taken on Saturday, the Odessa American newspaper reported.
“It’s a horrible tragedy for that family to lose Joe, for all of them to be there and be witness to that is just unspeakable,” Rick Pharaoh, a member of their congregation at First Baptist Church in Odessa told the paper.
“How do you ever get over something like that?” he asked. ” I think we need to band together and just show love to each other.”
Griffith’s wife, Becky Griffith, asked for prayers in a Facebook post on Sunday morning.
“I’ve been up most of the night and I’d like to ask you all to get up and go to church,” she wrote. “Pray for those still fighting for their lives, pray for those devastated by what they witnessed yesterday and pray for those dealing losses. Get the word of God in your heart and love each other.”
The doting dad worked six days a week to support his family, Griffith’s sister said.
She remembered his sense of humor and his uncanny ability to impersonate anyone.
Former students recalled what an amazing teacher Griffith was, saying he approached the subject matter in a way that made them actually want to learn.
Kaitlyn King, 25, who over a decade ago was in Griffith’s seventh-grade math class called him a “very funny teacher, very serious at the same time.”
“He was good at explaining everything,” King said.
Credit: Source link
Discussion about this post