‘Not forgotten’: Aurora pays tribute to Henry Pratt shooting victims

Abby Parks didn’t plan to speak.

Her grief is still raw, still on the surface.

“When February comes around, it’s like a slow march to Feb. 15,” Parks said. “Each day, you just get a little bit closer, hurts a little bit more, until you are enveloped with a lot of memories, a lot of hurt, a lot of pain.”

On that day six years ago, a gunman killed her husband, Clay, and four coworkers in a shooting at the Henry Pratt Co. factory in Aurora. Their son, Axel, was not even a year old.

Now a “sweet 6-year-old boy,” he sat next to his mother, sometimes wrapped in her arms, during a ceremony in Aurora’s city hall Saturday.

Every year, the city gives the families the space to remember their loved ones. It’s not just a passing moment of silence. A harpist played “Amazing Grace” before the official remarks. A procession of people placed white carnations before large photos of the five men: Parks, Josh Pinkard, Russell Beyer, Vicente Juarez and Trevor Wehner, the youngest killed at 21, just starting his internship in human resources.

“It’s now six years. They could say, forget it. We want to forget about that moment. But they don’t,” said former Pratt worker Anita Lewis, a Kane County Board member. “They come back and honor those five and honor everybody else.”

Aurora police Cmdr. Bryan Handell was a patrol sergeant working the midnight shift six years ago and sought to put that time into perspective.

“As a father, I know the difference between a 10-year-old and a 16-year-old is immense … but the events of Feb. 15, 2019, do not feel that long ago to me,” he said. “And I’m confident in saying that the officers who responded and the families of the victims don’t feel like it was that long ago, either.”

Five Aurora police officers also were shot that day.

“Love your family and friends,” Handell encouraged the gathering. “Thank the first responder when you see them, and don’t forget, we are all part of the same community.”

In the aftermath of the shooting, Mayor Richard Irvin said the city came together under the banner, “Aurora Strong.”

“It was more than just a phrase,” Irvin said.

Instead, it was a promise “to stand by the families who lost loved ones, to support the officers who risked their lives and to uplift one another in the face of heartbreak,” the mayor said.

Parks said she’s thankful for the people who share their memories and how “this day has impacted them, because gun violence does impact everyone in some way.”

“I’m just thankful that there is a community that continues to involve us in their embrace and show their kindness and their love,” she said. “It makes it just a little bit easier to know that we have the city of Aurora behind us, to know that Russell and Vicente and Clayton and Trevor and Josh are not forgotten, not just today, but always.”

https://www.dailyherald.com/20250215/news/not-forgotten-aurora-pays-tribute-to-henry-pratt-shooting-victims/