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(KTLA) – Family members and friends are sharing their memories of a Southern California couple killed in a shooting at an EDM festival in Washington state over the weekend.
Josilyn Ruiz, 26, and Brandy Escamilla, 29, both of whom were from the Los Angeles area, were attending Beyond Wonderland near the city of George on Saturday night when a gunman opened fire on a crowd in an area where people were camping, authorities said.
Escamilla died of a gunshot wound to the head, and Ruiz died from a gunshot wound to her torso, the Grant County Coroner said. Two other people were wounded.
The alleged gunman, identified as James M. Kelly, 26, was shot by law enforcement officers and survived. Officials said Kelly was a joint fire support specialist stationed at a U.S. Army base in Western Washington.
Ruiz and Escamilla were living in Seattle as traveling nurses and were engaged to be married, friends and family members in California said.
“Brandy was kind, caring, the kind of person that would light up a room with her energy and her beautiful smile,” a relative of Escamilla wrote on a GoFundMe page, adding that Escamilla had earned her nursing degree at Mount St. Mary’s University in Los Angeles. “She was a huge light in our lives with a lot of goals and ambitions to look forward to … We cannot put into words the pain our family is enduring.”
Josilyn Ruiz’s sister-in-law organized a separate GoFundMe campaign.
“As soon as you saw her, she would brighten up the room with her big, beautiful eyes, beautiful smile, and contagious laugh. Not only did our family and friends lose a special human being, but so did the world,” Leilani Ruiz wrote.
Donations will go toward funeral expenses and returning their belongings to California.
Photos released by a law firm representing the Ruiz family show the couple visiting New York City, skiing at California’s Snow Valley Mountain Resort, and Escamilla proposing in a picturesque winter mountain setting.
Both sets of parents were “processing their grief” and declined to speak with reporters on Wednesday, the law firm said.
The sheriff’s office said it received a report of a shooting around 8:20 p.m. Saturday at the camping area at the amphitheater near the small city of George, 149 miles east of Seattle. The gunfire erupted several hundred yards from the music festival.
A private security officer responding to the report of shots fired was struck by a bullet that deflected off her eyeglasses, causing bruising and lacerations, the Grant County sheriff said.
The alleged gunman was shot by law enforcement officers and was being treated at a hospital until Tuesday, the sheriff said. The incident remains under investigation, and a motive has not yet been released.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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