Greek-American Nicholas Thalasinos among the Dead at San Bernardino Shooting

 

Greek-American Nicholas Thalasinos, 52, was among the 14 victims of the fatal shooting in San Bernardino on Wednesday.

Thalasinos, who moved to California from New Jersey 13 years ago, was working with shooting suspect Syed Rizwan Farook at the San Bernardino County Health Department’s environmental services division his wife told LA Times.

“They got along,” she said. “As far as I know, [Syed] got along with everybody. That’s what’s so shocking.”

Syed Rizwan Farook, along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, carried out the San Bernardino shooting massacre on Wednesday during a holiday party for the San Bernardino County health department. Authorities have not announced a motive behind the attack.

“Thalasinos was a member of the Greek Orthodox church who recently converted to Messianic Judaism and was a strong proponent of Israel, and pro everything American” according to Kuuleme Stephens, a friend of the Greek-American.

“He liked to talk politics, including his support for the Second Amendment right to bear arms and his anti-abortion stance,” Stephens told AP.

Many of Thalasinos’ friends shared their grief on social media.

“I am in utter disbelief!!! Why? Why does God take away good people?” posted Yael Zarif-Markovich.

Paul Haried wrote: “Nick was such a loving and kind man. … Blessed be his memory! Yah grant him a wonderful place in yer Kingdom.”

Diana Jakopovic posted that she was Thalasinos’ longtime online friend and that they had bonded over political issues. She noted that he seemed deeply devout and often cited Scripture.

“I liked his comments,” she wrote. “He was inspiring. He understood that there is a lot of evil happening in the world.”

Thalasinos’ last public Facebook post, written just hours before the shooting, mentioned receiving a threatening message related to Israel.

Lisa Howard, launched a Gofundme page in support of Thalasinos’ wife, Jennifer. Howard writes:

“Jenn and Nick had a truly romantic, fairy tale love, having first met online via Beauty and the Beast fandom (the CBS TV show from the 80’s) and shared their love for science fiction and fantasy and had a very deep, spiritual relationship. They went through quite a lot in their 14 years together, loss, health issues, but always had each other to depend on. Jenn is going to be going through more than we’ll ever be able to understand and we hope this will help ease her life just a little.”

Thalasinos is survived by his wife and two adult sons.

Here’s the list with the rest of the victims of the fatal shooting:

Shannon Johnson, 45, Los Angeles

Bennetta Bet-Badal, 46, Rialto

Aurora Godoy, 26, San Jacinto

Isaac Amanios, 60, Fontana

Larry Kaufman, 42, Rialto

Harry Bowman, 46, Upland

Yvette Velasco, 27, Fontana

Sierra Clayborn, 27, Moreno Valley

Robert Adams, 40, Yucaipa

Tin Nguyen, 31, Santa Ana

Juan Espinoza, 50, Highland

Damian Meins, 58, Riverside

Michael Wetzel, 37, Lake Arrowhead