GROSSMONT HIGH GRADUATE AMONG VICTIMS OF OREGON SHOPPING MALL SHOOTING

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By Miriam Raftery

December 12, 2012 (El Cajon ) – Cindy Waddell graduated from Grossmont High School in 1976 and later lived in Scripps Ranch, earning her nursing degree from San Diego State Universtiy before moving to Oregon. Also known as Cindy Passalacqua and later Cindy Yuille, she lost her life in a shooting rampage yesterday at the Clackamas Town Center shopping mall near Portland, Oregon.

Former neighbor Linda Hughes recalled the slain woman as a “devoted mother, a sweet person,” ECM news partner 10 News reports. She was working as a hospice nurse in Oregon at the time of her death.

Another former San Diegan, Steve Forsyth, 45, was also killed in the tragedy.  Forsyth majored in business administration at the University of San Diego, where he attended school from 1985-1989. Father of two children, he owned a business in the shopping center and also coached youth sports.

Both were gunned down with a stolen semiautomatic rifle fired by 22-year-old Jacob Tyler Roberts, who took his own life after the shootings.  A third victim, Kristina Shevchenko, 15, is hospitalized with serious injuries including a gunshot wound to the chest.

Authorities report that Roberts fired around 60 shots, but fortunately the death toll was limited thanks to the quick thinking and heroic actions of many people present in the crowded shopping mall this holiday season. 

No motive has yet been determined, though investigators have indicated that the shooter did not know the victims and is believed to have fired at random. 

 


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