Remembering the Victims of the Midland/Odessa Mass Shooting Three Years Later

Three years ago on August 31, was a day those of us who have lived here will never forget, and we also won't forget the seven victims of that tragic day.

According to People, the mass shooting here happened just four weeks after another mass shooting happened at an El Paso Walmart. It was a tragic bookend to a turbulent month in the state of Texas.

But let us remember those seven innocent lives that were taken from our community that horrible day three years ago.

Edwin Peregrino, 25

Edwin Peregrino was visiting his parents and heard gunfire and went out to investigate and was shot and killed. The family stated Peregrino had moved out of the very house he was visiting and moved to San Antonio to start another chapter of his life and a new job.

Raul Garcia, 35

Raul was a truck driver that was "on his way home to be with his kids" according to his wife Perla. He was killed along Interstate 20 as the shooter was fleeing from a traffic stop.

Joe Griffith, 40

Joe was in his car at the traffic light on 42nd and Preston Smith Rd. where he was shot and killed in front of his wife and children. "This maniac pulled up next to him and shot him, took away his life, murdered my baby brother. Like nothing," said Carla Byrne, Joe Griffith's sister.

Mary Granados, 29

Mary was finishing her shift as a postal carrier before the gunman killed her so he could take her postal vehicle. She was talking on the phone to her twin sister Rosie when she was killed and her sister will never forget hearing her sister scream. The twins lived together in Odessa.

Kameron Karltess Brown, 30

Kameron was an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan and was a resident of Brownwood working for Standard Safety & Supply and was in Odessa working when he was killed by the gunman.

Rodolfo Julio Arco, 57

Rudy, as he was known, had just moved to Odessa from Las Vegas according to his son Ardy Arco while being interviewed by Fox 5 in Las Vegas about his father's shooting. Rudy was working as a truck driver and was returning from work when he was senselessly killed.

Leilah Hernandez, 15

Leilah and her brother Nathan, 18, were picking up a truck that Leilah had been saving up for and she was shot on the car lot that day. Her brother wrapped his arms around her when he heard the gunshots and he was also struck in his right arm by one of the bullets.

Three years and it still seems like yesterday that a beautiful West Texas summer day was shattered and seven people were senselessly killed, Midland/Odessa will never forget those lives.