Santa Monica Mourns One Week After Market Tragedy

By Erica Williams
Staff Writer

July 23 -- One week to the day after an elderly Santa Monica man tore a deadly path through the Downtown Farmers Market with his car, hundreds gathered around a makeshift shrine at Arizona Avenue and the Third Street Promenade to remember those who died.

Visitors to the Farmers Market pause for a moment of silence and prayer. Photos by Erica Williams

The mourners also donated money to help pay the medical and funeral bills and blood for the victims who remain hospitalized.

Most stared blankly, some wept silently and others laid flowers as leaders from across the religious community conducted an hour-long service organized by the Santa Monica Bay Interfaith Council in conjunction with the Bayside District Corporation, which manages the Promenade.

The quiet, solemn service culminated in a moment of silence at 1:47 p.m. as Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McKeown rapped on a gong and religious leaders lit candles, one for each of the victims.

Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniel (left) and Cantor David Shukiar from Beth Shir Sholom pray for the victims.

“I had to come here and be with you and cry,” McKeown, his eyes red and puffy, said during the service. McKeown had been in New York attending the Green Party National Convention and visiting family when the tragedy occurred.

New Yorkers, he said, who “have really been transformed by 9-11,” were quick to offer support and express empathy for the City. McKeown said he considered himself “a privileged vessel” for their sentiments.

“It was a very hard time not to be home in Santa Monica,” the councilman later said. “Nothing prepares you for hearing this sort of thing about your home when you’re away.”

Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McKeown strikes a gong in memory of the dead.

McKeown said he was glad the City and the community had the courage to continue the market despite the tragedy. “There’s no better memorial than this,” he said. “Those people were here because they loved the Farmers Market.”

As Suzanne Farley tells it, the market is a special place where vendors and shoppers know details of each other’s life stories and their families.

“This is not just merchants and customers,” said the former commercial real-estate appraiser, choking back tears, as she talked about her close ties with some of the vendors. “It’s like we’re next-door neighbors.”

Farley, who has lived in Santa Monica for 20 years, said she goes to the market, “like clockwork,” every Wednesday right after mass lets out at 12:50 p.m. from Saint Monica’s Church on 4th Street.

A family tragedy, though, had kept Farley away on July 16 -- her oldest son had died of cancer. Farley said her sister called around frantically last Wednesday, fearing she’d not only lost her nephew, but possibly her sister. She was later able to find Farley.

At the end of the service Juan Carlos, clutching a tiny terrier wearing a “service dog” jacket, could hardly speak. His face wore the shock and disbelief so common on faces last week.

Carlos had just learned two days ago that his friend, Lynn Weaver, the daughter-in-law of actor Dennis Weaver, was among the dead. He knew of the tragedy, he said, but didn’t think he had known anyone who had been at the market.

“To find out it was a friend of mine hits way close to home,” Carlos sputtered. He said had gotten to know Weaver through her husband, Rob, with whom he is working on a film project.

Mike Moessner of Moessner Orchards in Tehachapi described the mood as “real somber in the whole market today.” The lanky vendor, who said he had a lot of anxiety about returning, could still vividly recall the dull thud of bodies being hit as 86-year-old George Russell Weller roared by his stall.

Moessner’s vegetable stall that he mans with his mother, who handles the jams, jellies and pastries, sits at the northeast entrance to the Farmers Market at 4th Street. Moessner recalled that as he turned around to get something, “I heard the car accelerate, then I heard the first thud.

“A body landed right there,” he said, pointing to a tarred over spot to the right of his stall. “It was the homeless man," he said, referreing to Leroy Lattier Burnett, 55.

Moessner said he’d never seen Burnett -- who had been panhandling that day at the east entrance to the market -- before.

The first three nights after the tragedy, Moessner said, he couldn’t sleep. “I kept reliving the accident and seeing the bodies in the street.”

Another vendor, Edgar Jaime of Jaime Farms from the City of Industry, agreed it was a day “you’re never going to forget. Every week we’re here we’re going to remember what happened.”

This was not a regular day, Jaime added, but “a lot of customers showed their support (for us) by coming out and shopping.”

Support for victims also came in the form of donations as visitors doled out $4,144 today to the Santa Monica Farmers Market Victim Assistance Fund, said Kathryn Dodson, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce.

Donations have been pouring in, Dodson said, since the Chamber hastily established the fund less than 24 hours after the tragedy occurred. So far, it has amassed $70,000 in donations (including today’s receipts).

“We’ve had businesses making $10,000 donations and children walking up to us at the Farmers Market with a dollar in their hand,” Dodson said.

Donors included State Sen. Sheila Keuhl, who pledged $1,000 Wednesday. “We’ve had so many people open their wallets today and give us everything in it,” Dodson said.

A 16-member panel (which has grown from the original five because of the sizable number of victims) will administer the fund, Dodson said.

“Our first priority is to help the families of those killed,” she said “They tend to be in the most dire need of immediate cash. After helping the families of those who were killed, our next priority is to help those who have been injured and have unreimbursed medical expenses.”

The Chamber plans to attend other farmers markets around the city in the weeks to come seeking donations, Dodson said.

Mayor Richard Bloom, a booster of the Red Cross, addresses the crowd.

Meanwhile, the Santa Monica chapter of the American Red Cross conducted another blood drive in response to the tragedy. A “steady flow” of people had donated 35 units of blood by 3 p.m. today, said Cecilia Arevalo, a Red Cross spokesperson.

She urged people interested in donating blood to call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE to make arrangements to do so. The Josie Restaurant at 2424 Pico Blvd. will conduct a blood drive Thursday in the parking lot behind the restaurant and the Rite Aid.