Around 1,000 people gathered in Tucson for a vigil honoring two local men killed outside a gay bar in what police have confirmed was a hate crime.
Forty-two-year-old Vincent Anthony Siqueiros and 33-year-old Cameron Davis Capara were fatally shot outside Venture-N bar just after midnight Monday.
As the sun set Wednesday evening, community members huddled around a small stage set up on the grass at Tucson’s Catalina Park. A sea of thin white candles twinkled in the crowd as attendees hugged each other and cried.
Wiping tears from her eyes, Siqueiros sister, Kate Márquez, told the crowd her brother was a proud gay man.
“He was brave enough to live authentically in a world that sometimes told him his authentic self was unacceptable. He chose love anyway,” she said.
Márquez said her brother was killed because “hatred was allowed to become violence.”
“That demands something of each and every one of us, because hate does not begin with a gun, it begins much earlier,” Márquez said. “Our rhetoric matters, the jokes matter, the words we excuse matters, silence matters, and the way we love people matters.”
In a poster board photo propped up against the stage, Siqueiros had a big smile and black-rimmed glasses.
Another image showed Capara in a press vest and holding a camera. Capara was a local photographer who frequently documented protests and other activism in town.
His father, Jeff, told the vigil his son was one of the most compassionate people he’d ever met.
“He cared deeply about people in Tucson, or those thousands of miles away. People who were marginalized, overlooked or misunderstood,” he said. “I wish I had more time with Cameron, I wish I could have seen where his life would have taken him … the photographs he would have taken, what people he would have helped, and what more he would have done with his enormous part.”
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero was among several local officials in attendance at Wednesday’s vigil.
Speaking to the crowd, Romero said Catalina Park was a memorial site for Philip Walsted, a 24-year-old gay man who was killed in a 2002 hate crime.
“As your mayor, I will always stand up for the rights, dignity and safety of our LGBTQ+ Tucsonans. No estan solo,” Romero said. “You are not alone.”
Tucson police determined the shooting was a "targeted attack motivated by hate toward the LGBTQIA+ community."
Police say the gunman, 44-year-old Ousman Ceesay, was carrying a list of several LGBTQ-associated businesses and further investigation identified a note with sentiments against the community.
Ceesay died of a self-inflicted gunshot shortly after the attack Monday.
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