Memories of Shooting Spree Recalled : Memorials: Survivors, friends and relatives of those killed during the county’s bloodiest rampage gather for special rites on anniversary.

Irma Lopez kept reminding herself that Dec. 2 was a day like any other. But as the anniversary neared of the macabre shooting rampage at an Oxnard unemployment office that left five people dead and four wounded, the surreal memories rushed back, and she wanted time to stop.

“Our friends that lost their lives, I don’t think we’ll ever forget them,” said a tearful Lopez, who was seriously wounded during the massacre one year ago. “ . . . They were the most wonderful people you can imagine.”

Survivors, friends and relatives of those killed during Ventura County’s bloodiest shooting spree gathered Friday for several memorials honoring the public servants lost in the tragedy.

Outside the Ventura County Government Center Friday morning, about 75 people listened to Lopez and other speakers as the Board of Supervisors held a ceremony at a commemorative rose garden planted so the mass murders will never be forgotten.

About noon at the Santa Clara Cemetery in Oxnard, about 100 police officers and relatives of slain Detective James O’Brien met to recount his heroism and honor the anniversary of his death. Bagpipers played the mournful “Danny Boy,” a U.S. Marine Corps honor guard gave a 21-gun salute, and a large wreath was placed next to the fallen policeman’s grave.

“We’ll never forget him,” said Mary O’Brien, standing beside her brother’s grave. “Hopefully everybody else won’t.”

About 100 of O’Brien’s friends and family members also held a candlelight vigil on Victoria Avenue Friday night at the roadside where the detective was gunned down.

“It gives us a chance to finalize our feelings and bring this to a conclusion,” said Assistant Police Chief Stan Myers. The vigil was organized by the Oxnard Police Wives Assn.

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Each person placed a green and red ribbon on a 10-foot-tall Christmas tree. A note with the message, “A cop’s cop, but a friends’ friend,” was attached to a nearby pole that bears O’Brien’s name.

The tragedy unfolded last Dec. 2, when unemployed computer engineer Alan Winterbourne burst into the state Employment Development Department office in Oxnard and began indiscriminately shooting people, apparently frustrated after years of looking for work.

He gunned down unemployment workers Phillip Villegas and Anna Velasco and Richard Bateman, a rehabilitation counselor with the Assn. for Retarded Citizens visiting the office that day. Four other people were seriously wounded, including employee Lopez, who was shot in the back while desperately rushing to escape.

Winterbourne later shot and killed O’Brien before dying amid a fusillade of police gunfire as he attempted to enter another unemployment office in Ventura.

The massacre lasted only 13 minutes. Yet for the survivors and the relatives of those who were killed, the sorrow and trauma will last forever.

“I thought it was some kind of sick joke that my wife was supposed to be in the emergency room,” said Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez, husband of Irma Lopez, during the rose garden dedication. “But it wasn’t a sick joke, and it was a horrible day for all of us.”

Many of those who lived through the tragedy said Friday that the anniversary brought back painful emotions they had hoped to put away.

“It has always been in the back of our minds,” said Villegas’ mother, Nellie, at the rose garden ceremony. “This is reviving everything.”

Oxnard Police Chaplain Larry Modugno said that many officers, reminded of the blood bath of a year ago, have consulted with him in recent days, trying to make sense of what occurred.

“As we get to this anniversary, it brings back a lot of painful memories for the officers,” Modugno said at the cemetery. “It’s very difficult for officers to think about the loss of another officer, and the taking of a life, even if it is Alan Winterbourne.”

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Others said the show of support for O’Brien and the other victims of the shooting spree lifted their spirits.

“Now that I’m here this has left me with some good memories,” Mary O’Brien said. “I’ll always remember the support we received.”

Carol Hartnett, Bateman’s daughter, said she had not brought her young children to her father’s funeral a year ago because she thought it would have traumatized them. But the rose garden ceremony was something they could handle, she said.

“I think this was a more appropriate thing for them to experience,” Hartnett said, after walking the children through the rose garden to a plaque honoring the victims of the shooting. “I’m happy with this.”