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Michelle

In memory of Wayne Matthews

Twenty-four years ago, on August 30, I lost the love of my life, my first love, Wayne Matthews. Of course it was from gun violence! A Vietnam veteran, who was in and out of mental facilities since his time out of the war, walked into our motorcycle shop and shot Wayne at close range. He emptied and reloaded his gun 10 times before he was done. They said, and I pray to the Great Spirit that this is true, Wayne was bent over and never knew what happened. But sadly Wayne wasn’t his first kill that day. A few hours before, he went to a body shop and shot a young man while he was standing next to another young man. This unharmed young man recounted the shooter’s words before he shot his friend. They were, “This is for the children.”

This horrific event happened on a Saturday, and the young man that was shot and killed happened to have his wife and children with him that day at the shop, and they saw everything! I was blessed to be out with a friend that Saturday. Had I not been, my children and I would have been at our shop that day, and only the Great Spirit knows what would have happened! To this day, I don’t understand why this monster, who I will not name, was allowed to have a gun! I don’t feel he deserves notoriety. With his mental troubles, how did this happen? This same man drove around in his Corvette with his license plate that claimed how many Vietcong he had killed!

We must stop the gun violence! We must protect our loved ones, and especially our children!

We no longer have Wayne, and that young man’s wife and children no longer have him.

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