After search suspended for missing firefighters, community joined in prayer service

Prayer service held for missing firefighters in Vero Beach

CBS 12 News
by Luli Ortiz
August 23rd 2019

VERO BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — It’s been a week since two firefighters went on a fishing trip off the coast of Florida and never came home.

Nearly 150 people gathered at Jaycee Beach Park Friday afternoon to pray Brian McCluney and Justin Walker.

“We believe Justin in on that boat. We believe that he is surviving, and we believe he’s coming home,” said Sheila Walker, Justin’s mother.

After the prayer service, strangers embraced her.

Walker described her son, a Vero Beach native, "beautiful young man, big heart, everybody that meets him, loves him. He’s just got the best smile. He’s the life of the party when he shows up."

She said her son and McCluney went to EMT school together and have been inseparable ever since.

“I know he loves my son. [He’s] a good family man. He’s got two children, so we’re just trying to get back to his children and my son back to his wife and us,” she said.
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Search for missing firefighters continues by sea and air

update:‘Extremely tough decision' made to suspend search for missing boaters, officials say read it here

Search for missing firefighters will continue Thursday: 'Time has become our enemy'

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Missing boater grew up in Cocoa; mom remains optimistic as search continues

Florida Today
Tyler Vazquez
Aug. 20, 2019

Carla McCluney knows what her son has been through and just how capable he is.

Coast Guard

Although Brian McCluney has not been seen since Friday, his mother and the rest of his family are as optimistic as ever.

There's no reason yet to give up on the lifetime fisherman and Navy veteran who was born in Health First Cape Canaveral Hospital and grew up in Cocoa, Carla said.

Since the extensive manhunt was undertaken to find Brian, 38, a firefighter in Jacksonville, and his friend Justin Walker over the weekend, tens of thousands of square miles of Atlantic Ocean have been covered by the U.S. Coast Guard and civilian volunteers.
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