Reported by Dave D’Marko
ORLANDO -- Friends and family said their final goodbyes to the man who died following a deadly rampage at a downtown Orlando office building.
Funeral services were held Saturday afternoon in West Palm Beach for Otis Beckford.
Many of Beckford’s friends and co-workers in Orlando boarded a bus Saturday morning outside the Gateway Center, the very site of his murder.
Beckford and other employees of Reynolds, Smith and Hills Inc. were finishing up a typical workweek in their eighth-floor office when police said a disgruntled former employee stormed in and opened fire.
The suspected shooter, Jason Rodriguez, was captured by police after shooting six people.
The five other victims have since been released from the hospital, but Beckford, 26, did not survive.
Co-workers have spent weeks trying to come to grips with what happened. They say paying their respects is key to their recovery.
A native Jamaican, Beckford left behind a fiancée and 7-month-old daughter.
“It hit home more, especially happening here in the states,” said Mark Jathen, owner of Mark’s Caribbean Cuisine who hosted a benefit for Beckford’s family Friday night. “More often, you look in the paper in Jamaica, and there’s stuff going on -- you never think it would happen here. So we are here to support them in whatever way we can do.”
Jason Rodriguez remains locked up without bond.
Want To Help?
Two funds have been set up to help the victims of the downtown shooting, one for the Family of Otis Beckford, and one for the surviving victims, called the Orlando Recovery Fund.
You can make donations at your local Bank of America.
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