Baseball-loving father and son from Texas among Nice attack victims

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/15/nice-victims-brodie-sean-copeland-texas

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Brodie Copeland played baseball, acted in theater, and his family loved Texas football. He was killed with his father in Nice, France, when a man barreled his truck down a crowded promenade and killed more than 84 people on Thursday night. He was 11.

Copeland was one of several children killed in the attack, which is being investigated as an act of terrorism. His family confirmed the deaths in a statement released to media on Friday.

“We are heartbroken and in shock over the loss of Brodie Copeland, an amazing son and brother who lit up our lives, and Sean Copeland, a wonderful husband and father,” the family said in a statement. “They are so loved.”

The Copeland family lived in the town of Lakeway, near Austin, Texas, and had been on vacation in Europe when their travels took them to the south of France, according to family and the junior baseball club where Brodie played.

An organizer of the Hill Country baseball club posted a photo of Brodie on the pebbled banks of the Riviera on Facebook, writing: “This photo was sent to me earlier today from the French Riviera”.

“Nobody deserves this type of fate, especially not such a wonderful family. You are in our hearts, thoughts, and prayers. Rest in peace, Brodie and Sean, you will be remembered by many.”

The Copelands had trekked from along northern Spain, from Pamplona to Barcelona, before they reached Nice to celebrate Bastille Day, friend Jess Davis told the Austin Statesman. Sean Copeland, 51, coached youth baseball and worked as an executive for software company Lexmark Corporation, Davis said.

The Facebook page of Brodie’s mother is littered with photos of the boy playing sports and in youth theater: he was a “who” in the musical Seussical Jr and more recently joined a performance of Peter Pan. His mother wrote in one post that she had gone to see the Seuss play six times. In another she posed with her husband sipping mint juleps for on Kentucky Derby day. In a third, posted just after the terror attacks in Paris that killed 130 people last November, she colored her profile photo in the tricolor of France.

The holiday coincided with a relative’s birthday, Haley Copeland, another family member, wrote on Facebook.

“Losing a loved one is hard no matter the circumstances but losing a loved one in suck a tragic and unexpected way is unbearable,” she wrote. Another relative, Heather Copeland, wrote: “I don’t even know how to put this into words.”

“Today was a very [tragic] day for my family,” she added.

Family and friends grieved in raw posts on social media for the Copelands, though they have mostly declined to comment to press. “My heart aches right now,” their friend Jason Granger wrote, who asked people to pray for Brodie’s surviving mother, half-brother and half-sister, who “witnessed the horrible tragedy but were able to get out of harms way.

“I know both Sean and Brodie knew and loved Jesus and that is comforting but it still hurts to the core.”

Another friend, Jeff Petry, wrote: “No words can describe how we feel. Sean and Brodie touched our lives in so many ways. Such a good man and a great kid and teammate.”

“It was a devastating feeling, it took me a while to sink in. I called some people to confirm to make sure what I had read had actually happened,” a family friend, Jason Dixon, told local KXAN news. Dixon said that the boy’s “attitude and personality were infectious and it rolled off on me as an adult and obviously the kids, but he was a natural at youth sports”.

Sean Copeland’s brother, Troy, told NBC News only that the family is having “a very difficult time”. On Facebook he invoked the book of Psalms, along with a desperate plea for peace: “In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me.” Psalm 86:7 ‪#‎prayfornice‬‪#‎prayforfrance‬ ‪#‎prayfortheworld‬ ‪#‎peace‬”.