SEBRING, Fla. — “It’s so heartwarming to see everybody here who has come out today to do this,” Mayor John Shoop said to a crowd of people.
Jan. 23, 2020, marked one year since five women lost their lives in a shooting at a SunTrust bank in Sebring.
Jessica Montague, Cynthia Watson, Marisol Lopez, Ana Piñon-Williams and Debra Cook were killed when a gunman opened fire inside the SunTrust off U.S. Highway 27 near Tubbs Road.
Family, friends, and strangers gathered in the very spot where 21-year-old Zephen Xaver shot and killed the four bank workers and Watson, a customer.
“Their human bodies may be gone, but their spirits are with us all,” Mayor Shoop said to a tent full of watering eyes.
After the shooting, the bank never reopened. Instead, it was torn down and replaced with a memorial to honor and remember the five women killed. Mayor Shoop said this tragedy has forever changed the community and the company.
“It’s something we know happens around the world, happens around our country, but it doesn’t happen to us, but it happened to us,” Shoop said.
The city is turning this tragedy into a symbol of strength. Shoop believes it has brought the already tight-knit community even closer. He said today marked a milestone as Sebring dedicates a park in honor of the women killed.
“It's been a year and it doesn't seem that way and it saddens me of course when I see my nieces and nephews grieving her, especially today,” Blanca Piñon said.
Blanca Piñon and her little sister Maria, lost their big sister, Ana Piñon-Williams, in the shooting. They said their family has been looking to God and are praying through this tough time.
"It's been hard, you know every day you relive the same day every day,” Maria said. “I try to be strong for my family, mostly for my mom because my mom really loved her and my mom cries every day for her."
Maria said her big sister Ana was like a mother to her. She described her as a very caring person.
"It's just so hard because she was just the glue to our family,” Maria said. “She was just so loving and it's just so sad that someone would do such a horrific thing to someone so innocent, 5 innocent ladies that didn't do nothing to him."
“We just try to stick together as a family and keep pushing forward,” Blanca said. "I just try to remember her as she was, happy and smiling all the time.
Blanca said her family couldn’t be more grateful for the park memorial Sebring and Highlands County made to honor Ana and the four other women killed.
“We hope that it stays that way,” Blanca said. “We hope that it stays a memorial for them because their lives were taken and we don't want them to ever be forgotten."
Ana's sisters said now they wait for the trial, the day that will determine the fate of their big sister's alleged killer, 21-year-old Zephen Xaver. The state attorney said he's seeking the death penalty. Until then, the community remembers the five women who were mothers, sisters and friends. Five women taken too soon, but forever remembered in a community that is Sebring Strong.
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