Brylee Walker.Photo: GOFUNDME
Brylee’s older brother, Jordan, said he knew his sister had died as soon as he learned that the driver had been killed.“Brylee sat right behind the bus driver, she never switched her seat. She never wanted to be in the back,” Jordan toldNBC affiliate WPXI.“I just hope it was fast — that’s the one thing that kept playing in my head is her perspective of it if she was still alive,” he added. “What is happening? All these other people are getting out [of the bus] — what if she’s wondering who’s going to help me? It just hurts.“Brylee’s parents also mourned the loss of their daughter, calling her a “beautiful soul” in a statement to localABC station WTAE.“We wouldn’t wish this tragedy on any parent ever but also ask ourselves why… one child fatality and it was ours,” said Jason Walker and Sara Fusco Walker. “Brylee’s heart was just too big for this world.“According to herobituary, Brylee was a freshman at Lincoln Park Performing Arts School who had a “passion” for music and “enjoyed spending time and traveling with her family more than anything.”
As for Thompkins, the bus driver’s sister said that he died doing what he loved.“When he grew up he wanted to be a bus driver, a truck driver, and he lived his dream,” Shereka Simmons told Pittsburgh radio stationKDKA.“I’ve just been getting so much love from everyone saying how good of a bus driver he was, how respectful he was and that touches my heart,” Simmons added.
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Lindsay Thompkins.FACEBOOK
The loss of her brother — who is also a father to two children, a 2-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter — has been particularly hard for Simmons, as their mother died just over a year ago, according toWPXI.“It’s hard. It’s devastating, that’s my brother. He doesn’t deserve for this to happen,” Simmons told the outlet. “We just lost our mother a year ago and now I have to bury my brother too.”
source: people.com
