Blessings for a peaceful rest

Four Buddhist monks lead dozens of residents in ceremonial prayer a day after two security guards are killed at an apartment complex

June 04, 2009
By Christian Burkin
also by Jennifer Torres
Record Staff Writers (Stockton, California, USA)

STOCKTON - With an invocation to Buddha, four monks from the Wat Dharmararam Buddhist Temple prayed to cleanse the Park Village Apartments and grant the spirits of the dead a peaceful rest.

Namo tasak peaka watow arahatow sama samphutasak.

The words were Pali, the language of Theravada scripture. They were repeated by dozens of residents who kneeled on mats spread in the parking lot where Claude Eugene McCormick, 50, and Oscar Cazares, 46, were found shot to death Tuesday morning. The mourners held incense sticks tied with marigolds. Many older women wore white mourning shawls around their chests.

"It's a part of the healing process," said Vanna Prasit, assistant director for the nonprofit organization that oversees Park Village. "Such a tragedy. We don't know how to deal with it except as a community. This is how we show respect."

Among those gathered was McCormick's friend Gladys Stokes, who was in Chicago when she heard news of his death. She flew home to Sacramento and then drove to Stockton, arriving at the Park Village Apartments just in time to sit for the ceremony.

"I don't know what they said, but they really cared," Stokes said.

Stokes said McCormick, a friend of 15 years, has family all over the South and in Northern California. A foster son lives in Sacramento. Stokes is arranging to return McCormick's body to Mississippi.

McCormick, Stokes said, had worked in security for about 25 years and never seemed to worry much about his safety until about six or seven months ago. Stokes didn't know the reason for the change, but she guessed McCormick's employer, Ad Force Private Security, might. Ad Force did not return a call for comment.

At the apartment building in midtown Stockton where Cazares lived, neighbor Larry Holman, 56, said he felt like a layer of safety had been taken from him. Cazares was built like a bear, Holman said, and never seemed scared.

"He was a brave man to go against people without a gun," Holman said. "He knew he had a job to do, and he just did it."

Officer Pete Smith, a police spokesman, said he had no new information about the killings to release Wednesday. He said investigators are reviewing security video but would not say what the footage contained. Smith said the Police Department is increasing patrols in the Oak Park area.

The Ad Force security guard patrolling the complex Wednesday wore a gun on his hip. In the afternoon, an elderly woman brought him an ear of corn for a snack. She brought more for journalists standing in the shade, waiting for the ceremony to begin.

Prasit said Park Village residents are confused and scared.

"It's shocking. But this is my home. I'm comfortable here. We'll do whatever we need to do to protect our residents," she said.

A community meeting is planned for this morning. Residents already have begun collecting money to pay for Buddhist ceremonies and to donate to the guards' families, Prasit said.

On Wednesday afternoon, Kunthea Tuy was gathering food offerings in preparation for four days of Buddhist mourning.

She lives at the complex and is a member of the community's staff.

"It's very scary," she said. "It's been OK here for a long time."

Tuy, like many of Park Village's residents, fled Cambodia after Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge forces took control of the country, eventually killing nearly 2 million people in a campaign of forced labor, starvation and execution.

At the end of Wednesday's prayer service, participants walked in a procession around the complex, then left their incense sticks on an altar arranged in honor of the guards.

It had mangos and doughnuts, flowers and cups of Starbucks coffee. Lupe Martinez, a relative of Cazares', left candles with images of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Contact reporter Christian Burkin at (209) 546-8279 or cburkin@recordnet.com.