A year after her daughter was killed in a triple shooting, a San Jose mother is reclaiming the tragic day and turning it into something positive.
Jeannessa Lurie’s loved ones gathered Wednesday at Paul Moore Park to carry out her legacy as an animal advocate and launched “Jeannessa’s Friends,” a nonprofit organization that aims to provide funding, education, and resources to animal rescue groups and low-income pet parents.
Lurie, 24, was gunned down at her home last September alongside her roommate, Tarrah Taylor, and her boyfriend, Max Ryan.
The alleged gunman, Joseph Vicencio, was Taylor’s boyfriend and is currently behind bars.
In her first interview since the killings, Lurie’s mother Jeanna said her daughter confided in her a couple of weeks before the shooting, saying she didn’t like Vicencio and tried getting her roommate away from him.
“A really horrible person did a really horrible thing and he took my daughter’s life and he took the lives of Tarrah Taylor and Max Ryan,” Jeanna said. “I didn’t want him to take my life, and I wanted to be inspired by the things my daughter brought to this world in the short time she was here.”