Iraq Veteran Among Dead in Colorado

UPDATE

Planned Parenthood Victim Ke'Arre Stewart Tried to Save Others

Man killed in Colorado shooting was veteran, served in Iraq
AP
By KRISTEN WYATT and SADIE GURMAN
Nov. 30, 2015

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A look at the three people who were killed in a shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic:

COMBAT VETERAN, FATHER

Ke'Arre Stewart, 29, was accompanying someone at the clinic when he was killed, said Amburh Butler, a lifelong friend and family spokeswoman. Stewart leaves behind two girls, 11 and 5, who live in Texas. Stewart and Butler met when they were 11 in Waco, Texas and were high school sweethearts, she said.

They both joined the Army, but Stewart joined first, right after his high school graduation in 2004, she said. He served in the Fourth Infantry Division and was deployed to Iraq, where he would often send her letters describing the horrors he saw on the front lines.

"He would tell me how terrible it was, how many guys he watched die. It was terrible for him," Butler said. The Army stationed Stewart at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs in 2013, she said. He was discharged from the military the following year. "He went someplace where people expect to die, only to come back ... and be killed."

John Ah-King told The Denver Post that his daughter 36-year-old Jennifer Markovsky, was one of three people who died Friday when a gunman opened fire. He described Markovsky as a kind-hearted, lovable person with two children.

Garrett Swasey worked as a police officer at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. He was there when he was called to assist with an active shooter at the nearby clinic. read more here