Among the five people killed in a shooting Thursday at The Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, was Wendi Winters, a reporter, mother of four and longtime youth mentor at her church.

Here & Now‘s Robin Young speaks with the Rev. John Crestwell, associate minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Annapolis where Winters was a member.

“Wendi is just one of those rare individuals that doesn’t come along often,” he says. “She was quirky in her own way, always had a wild story and a bit of gossip — she knew something about everything in Annapolis — and just loved kids.”

Crestwell says when he shared the news with his 23-year-old son, “he broke down immediately … because she had meant so much to him and so many kids. It’s really a huge loss.”

The church will hold a vigil for Winters on Friday afternoon prior to a community-wide interfaith vigil for each of the five victims at Westfield Annapolis Mall parking lot on Friday night.

“There’s obviously grief, but there’s also anger. We know this is another case of senseless violence and the violent culture that we live in,” Crestwell says. “But I will celebrate her life, talk about how she lived into our seven principles, the first being the inherent worth and dignity of all people, and how she bent over backwards to be a helping hand for everyone.”

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