Two people killed in Friday’s tragic shooting at the Colorado Planned Parenthood Clinic were confirmed as members of the military community on Sunday. One of the victims was a military veteran who ran into gunfire to save lives.
The first victim was Jennifer Markovsky, a 35 year-old Hawaiian native who met her husband Paul while he was stationed in Hawaii. They moved to Colorado after Paul was reassigned. Markovsky was accompanying a friend to the clinic when she was fatally shot by a gunman. She is survived by her two children.
The second victim was Ke’Arre Stewart, an Army veteran who served in the Iraq war.
According to Stewart’s brother Leyonte Chandler, the veteran was actually outside the clinic searching for cellphone reception when the shooting began. Rather than escape, Stewart ran back inside the building to help the people inside.
“I believe that’s his military instinct, you know: Leave no soldier behind, leave no civilian behind, just leave no one behind,” Chandler said to NBC News. “I don’t know where he was at, as far as how many more breaths he had, but he knew. And before his time ran out I guess that was his main priority … to help and save other lives.”
“He tried to run back inside the building — well, he did — and tell the other people inside, you know, ‘Take cover, get down.’ People started taking cover, hiding in bathrooms and whatnot.”
Stewart spent Thanksgiving with his friend Tony Fischer, a fellow Army veteran who Stewart trained with at Fort Benning. Fischer told the Huffington Post that he is struggling to make sense of his friend’s death mere minutes away from home.
“When you’re done with combat, that’s when people quit dying,” Fischer said. “It’s not when we’re hanging out at the grocery store, or at church or the shopping complex where Planned Parenthood is. When you come home you’re not supposed to worry about that stuff.”
Like Markovsky, Stewart was accompanying a friend to the clinic and also left behind two young daughters, who live in Texas. His friends and family have set up a GoFundMe page to support his children.