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First funeral held for Alabama shooting victims
Sonya Smith, 42, among 10 killed Tuesday in rampage
 AP Bruce Maloy of Samson, Ala., was hailed as the unsung hero of shootings that claimed 10 lives this week. Authorities and witnesses said Maloy chased the shooter out of town in his pickup truck, possibly prevent more deaths. Maloy is pictured holding his newborn grandchild on Feb. 22, 2006. |
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SAMSON, Ala. - The first funeral has been held for one of 10 people killed in the mass shootings in south Alabama, as rural communities mourn the worst massacre in state history.
Several hundred people gathered to remember Sonya Smith on Saturday at the funeral service at Shady Grove Assembly of God Church in Coffee Springs.
The 42-year-old Smith was killed Tuesday afternoon as she walked out of a gas station in Samson. Michael McLendon killed nine other people, including five relatives, before committing suicide.
The funeral for the slain wife and infant daughter of a local deputy, Josh Myers, is scheduled for Sunday.
Andrea D. Myers, 31, and their 18-month-old daughter, Corrine Gracy Myers, were the victims slain in a two-county shooting spree. The couple’s younger daughter, Ella K. Myers, just 4 months old, was wounded in the attack as they visited neighbors who were relatives of the gunman.
Also killed was Lisa White McLendon, 52, of Kinston, Michael McLendon's mother. Police say the woman was shot to death along with four dogs at the home she shared with McLendon in Kinston. He then set the house afire.
Other victims identified
Other relatives killed in the shooting include James Alford White, 55, Samson, identified by police as McLendon's uncle; Tracy Michelle Wise, 34, of Samson, identified as McLendon's cousin; Dean James Wise, 15, of Samson, identified as Tracy Wise's son and McLendon's second cousin; Virginia E. White, 74, of Samson, identified by police as McLendon's grandmother.
The remaining two victims included James Irvin Starling, 24, a pedestrian who was apparently shot at random on a city street in Samson and Bruce Wilson Malloy, 51, who was traveling in a vehicle on Highway 52 as McLendon was fleeing Samson for Geneva, where he later took his own life.
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