A bright light with an infectious smile, that’s how the boyfriend of one of the 14 victims of Wednesday’s mass shooting in San Bernardino hopes the world will remember Larry Daniel Kaufman.
“Daniel was one of the brightest lights in the world. … He was literally a friend to everybody,” Ryan Reyes said Friday, a day after he found out his boyfriend had died.
Kaufman, a 42-year-old man who ran a coffee shop inside the Inland Regional Center, was killed Wednesday when two shooters opened fire on a group of people attending a holiday luncheon.
The identification of Kaufman and the 13 other victims was delayed by the chaotic scene, the search for the shooters, and because the building’s sprinkler system had gone off — possibly after being struck by a bullet — causing the room to flood.
Reyes was initially told Kaufman, his boyfriend of nearly three years, had survived the attack, and had only having suffered a gunshot wound to his arm, the Los Angeles Times reports.
But after visiting the community center where survivors were being relocated, calling six different hospitals, and waiting to hear from Kaufman, Reyes learned nearly 24 hours after the shooting that the initial information was wrong and that he had died.
“I’m so emotionally drained right now,” Reyes told the Times, adding that two other friends of his had died in recent years. “I don’t know if I want to scream, cry or break a window.”
A day after being given the devastating news — an emotional moment that was captured by a Times photographer — Reyes appeared calmer and told KTLA of the numerous phone calls he had received from people giving their condolences.
“He made such an impact on their lives, for however brief time that they knew him, that they remember him 10 years later,” Reyes said.
Kaufman had “an infectious smile,” and was a “big staple” at the renaissance fair, where the couple participated annually — the 42-year-old having been part of the event for some 16 years.
“That was like the highlight of their day,” Reyes said of attendees, “was seeing Daniel in the parades jumping around with this big grin, and singing, and beating on his tambourine and twirling the flag. You know, just being out there.”
Reyes had not followed media coverage of the shooting, but said he hoped the shooters’ backgrounds did not lead to racial profiling and mass hysteria.
“You only hold the people that are accountable, accountable. Do not hate and threaten and be afraid of these other people that are actually really loving people,” he said.
The couple had friends of various faiths, and Reyes said Kaufman would want him to tell people not to judge others based on their religion.
“We do not blame the entire Muslim community or Islamic community for something like this that happens. … We understand that it’s just the radicals,” Reyes said.
