"This is a shock. This is unbelievable," said Jesse Vetaluh while standing outside Side Street Café in Newbury Park. She and her son have been coming to the cafe for years.
They stopped in to pay their respects to the restaurant's owner, Andrew Canepa, who was one of those who died in Monday’s mass shooting outside of a Reno, Nevada hotel.
"He always had a big smile," said Vetaluh.
The men were in Nevada for a bachelor party. Two of them were killed and two were seriously wounded in Monday’s shooting.
They were about to return home when the gunman approached them in the valet area. Police say he tried to open fire, but his gun temporarily jammed. The group scattered, but the man then fired several shots, hitting four members.
On Tuesday night, authorities in Sparks, Nevada, identified the three men who died in the attack. They included Canepa and another Ventura County resident, Justin Aguila, both 33. A third person, identified as 66-year-old Angel Martinez of Reno, was also killed.
Two other Ventura County men were seriously injured. Their names haven't yet been released. No connection between the shooter and the victims has been established.
Responding officers shot and wounded the gunman, who is a 26-year-old from the Reno area. He has no criminal mental health history.
At Canepa’s Side Street Café in Newbury Park, customers showed up all day with flowers. They signed a memorial poster in front of the restaurant.
Rick Bucaria owns East Wind Screen Print, which is next to the café. He’s known Canepa for years.
"It's really hard to comprehend. It's a shock," said Bucaria.
He said after the Borderline Bar and Grill mass shooting in Thousand Oaks in 2018, which killed a dozen people, they teamed up to sell t-shirts to help the victims' families. "When we printed the shirt, Andrew was the guy I brought the shirts to, and he thought they were really great," said Bucaria. "I gave him a couple of dozen shirts, and he started selling them. He put them on the counter, and they put them on Facebook, and I walked back in to get my lunch. Then, he goes, 'I can't even answer the phone, Everybody wants the shirts'. The next morning, I opened up the garage door, and there was a line all the way up the street. We sold $10,000 in shirts for the families of the Borderline tragedy."
Now, he says he’s ready to make T-shirts to help his friend’s family. Canepa has a young son.
"Every day, I'd see Andrew. He was always a great guy to be around. It was like family (in his restaurant). His slogan was 'This is where the locals meet.'"
