Ft. Hood victim gets vigil

CHICAGO – Dozens of mourners clutching candles and white carnations gathered Monday for a vigil outside the Chicago home of a soldier killed in the shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.

Friends remembered Pvt. Francheska Velez’s infectious smile and her love of music as they listened to pop songs blaring from a speaker at the two-flat building on the city’s west side. Mourners stood silently, wiping away tears and occasionally stepping forward to sign an American flag hanging on the wrought-iron front gate.

The silence was broken as the Sean “Diddy” Combs’ song “I’ll Be Missing You” played, and many in the crowd tearfully sang along and clapped.

Velez, 21, was one of 13 people killed at the Army post Thursday. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, is accused of opening fire on soldiers, also wounding 29 others, before civilian police shot him in the torso. One other Illinois soldier, Pfc. Michael Pearson of Bolingbrook, also died.

One of those keeping vigil, Cesar Gandia, said he last saw Velez when she came home for a visit from Iraq in August. He recalled how Velez insisted on wearing high heels the entire time because she was sick of combat boots.

“Her feet would be sore, but she’d wear them just because she could,” he said.

Velez had planned to return to Chicago soon because she was pregnant.

Melinda DeJesus, 22, dressed in a hooded sweatshirt emblazoned with a large photo of Velez and the words “RIP Cheka,” recalled how everyone seemed to love Velez.

“She was going to be a great mom,” DeJesus said.

Angel Rivera, 19, wore dog tags he recently had received during his basic training for the Marines. He’d lived on a base elsewhere in Texas, and the shooting left him rattled.