The last thing Jason Coffman told his son Wednesday night was “I love you.”
Now, in an instant, Cody Coffman, 22, was gone, one of 12 victims killed at the Borderline Bar and Grill mass shooting in Thousand Oaks.
“He wanted to be the big brother to two brothers and a sister on the way,” Jason Coffman said. Cody Coffman also had a brother with his mothers family.
MORE: Here are all the victims identified in Thousand Oaks mass shooting
“He was so excited to have his first sister. Shell never know …” his father said.
Jason Coffman said his son had been meeting with recruiters and planned to enlist in the Army. He was an umpire for a youth baseball league in Camarillo.
Jason Coffman struggled to hold himself together as he spoke about his son.
“This is going to be an absolute heart-wrenching time for me and my family,” he said. “This is a heart that Ill never get back.”
Cody was popular in the area, among colleagues, and people who only knew of him in social circles knew him as a “super nice guy,” one local resident said.
Owner Colt Curtis said Cody Coffman was an instant hire, just shy of a year ago.
“We hired him right on the spot,” he said of Cody, who loved to wear cowboy boots and a cowboy hat.
Curtis said Coffman was always smiling and loved his family, and that he and Cody would often talk about Country music, horses and the Army — an experience Cody was looking forward to in a matter of weeks.
“He had a real keen interest in the Army,” Curtis said, which was likely why he fit in so well with Curtis company, which hires people with military training and interest. And it was the kind of job that made for strong bonds among co-workers.
They liked to call him “boots” because hed always wear them.
Curtis said hed been hearing that Cody Coffman died trying to get people out of harms way.
That would not have surprised him, he said.
“Cody was a really big helper, he said. “I know hes the kind of guy who would do that.”
Freelancer writer Marianne Love contributed to this story.
Jason Coffman mourns his son, Cody: pic.twitter.com/OevcVl9DLX
— Ryan Carter (@ryinie) November 8, 2018
Even reporters were crying with Jason Coffman today, as he mourned his son, Cody. #BorderLineShooting pic.twitter.com/V9GA6LmM6Q
— Ryan Carter (@ryinie) November 8, 2018
Father of Cody Coffman speaks about the son he lost in #borderlineshooting. “There were so many people he touched” pic.twitter.com/gGYWe3byyV
— Ryan Carter (@ryinie) November 8, 2018
“Its fair to say that the mood is very somber” inside this place, as families, loved ones unite over ##BorderLineShooting — Thousand Oaks City Manager pic.twitter.com/HwbqB1cfPw
— Ryan Carter (@ryinie) November 8, 2018
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