Two of the ‘Good Guys’

Wearing bright-orange shirts identifying them as Caltrans workers, they stood out among the crowd of somberly dressed mourners. Their trucks were parked outside the church.

Among the 800 who came to bid farewell Tuesday to Michael J. Kelley were dozens of his co-workers still trying to make sense of last week’s tragedy.

“This is something that should never have happened,” said Ed Castro, 32. “It could have happened to any of us. The pain that his family is going through could have been my family’s pain.”

Kelley, along with co-workers Wayne A. Bowers, Hal Bierlein and Paul E. White, were shot to death Thursday by disgruntled ex-employee Arturo Reyes Torres at a Caltrans maintenance yard in Orange. The rampage ended when police killed Torres, 41.

“This morning is not one of our best mornings,” Father Jim Williams told the mourners at the Beatitudes of Our Lord Catholic Church, where Kelley had been a much-loved volunteer. “We are very stunned at what happened to Mike. The anger and violence around us is very disturbing.”

Services for White, 30, were held Monday night in Wilmington, and those for Bierlein, 51, are scheduled today in Santa Ana.

Bowers, 43, was eulogized Tuesday afternoon at Evans and Brown Chapel in Sun City, where an overflow crowd heard neighbors and fellow Caltrans workers speak of his humor and love of his family.

“Hardly a week went by that he didn’t bring in a new picture of his family,” one co-worker told the crowd, as funeral directors distributed boxes of tissue.

Miles apart in distance but not in spirit, Williams asked his audience, “Why did this happen? The truth is, we don’t know. Mike was a kind, gentle person, the last person you would ever imagine having a sudden and violent death. Our one consolation is that it was so sudden that he probably didn’t realize what was happening.”

Police said Torres first shot Bierlein who was sitting in a Volkswagen at the front of the yard. Then he calmly walked around a suite of trailer offices firing more than 70 bullets, killing the three other men inside. A former co-worker said Torres blamed Bierlein for his firing in June, but police were unsure whether Torres intended to shoot the others or they were chosen at random. Kelley, for one, had expressed concern regarding Torres’ apparent anger and disaffection, friends said.

Tuesday, those friends and loved ones struggled to understand an unthinkable end for a gentle man who loved to dance and play softball. A divorced father of two, Kelley was a frequent volunteer at the church, where he did everything from office chores to gardening and fixing leaky roofs.

“I’m feeling a lot of sadness,” said Troy Johnson, 35, a Caltrans employee in Diamond Bar, who knew Torres, Bowers and Kelley. “All of them were good guys. I just don’t know what happened. I’ve never been this close to something like this. I never thought it would happen.”

Kelley’s family wept as they gazed upon his open casket before the service and talked about their feelings afterward.

“It’s very hard,” said his son, James, trying not to cry. “He is going to be missed,” said the boy who will turn 18 this weekend.

Nineteen-year-old daughter Michelle couldn’t hold back back her tears. “He was a very good man,” she said. “We were his life; we were everything he had. He loved his kids and his family so much.”

She paused as the tears increased.

“He should have given me away at my wedding and lived to see his grandkids. Now he won’t be there.”

Times staff photographer Don Bartletti contributed to this report.