The city of Aurora will hold a wreath-laying ceremony on Sunday to honor those who lost their lives in the mass shooting at the Henry Pratt Co. facility in the city seven years ago.
On Feb. 15, 2019, at the Henry Pratt Co. manufacturing plant in Aurora, an employee who had just been fired pulled out a pistol, which he was not legally allowed to own, and began shooting. He killed three people who were in the meeting with him and two others elsewhere in the plant, according to past reporting.
In addition to the five Pratt employees he killed, the gunman also wounded six people — five police officers and another Pratt employee — before he was killed in a shootout with the police. The manhunt through the factory took 66 minutes, with up to 300 officers and eight SWAT teams responding to the incident.
Aurora’s wreath-laying ceremony will take place Sunday at 1 p.m. at City Hall, 44 E. Downer Place in downtown Aurora. Taking place on the seventh anniversary of the mass shooting, the ceremony is for residents to come together in solemn remembrance of those lost during the tragedy, according to an Eventbrite webpage for the ceremony.
Those interesting in attending can reserve a spot at: eventbrite.com/e/we-remember-wreath-laying-ceremony-on-the-7th-anniversary-of-henry-pratt-tickets-1982455990233
The five victims to be honored at the ceremony are Russell Beyer, Vicente Juarez, Clayton Parks, Josh Pinkard and Trevor Wehner.
Beyer was a mold operator and a union leader, whose father said had gone to bat many times for the man who ended up killing him.
Juarez was a stockroom attendant and forklift operator who is remembered as a beloved father and grandfather.
Parks was the human resources director, a loving husband and the father of a young child.
Pinkard was the plant manager and a family man who, after being shot, texted his wife that he loved her.
Wehner was a college student and a human resources intern who was killed on his first day at the job.
“They will always be the lights that endure beyond the loss,” city officials said of the victims on the Eventbrite webpage for the ceremony.
Aurora has held a remembrance event yearly on the anniversary of the mass shooting. Last year, city officials said that the ceremony was held at City Hall and not near the Pratt site, per the surviving family members’ request, because people don’t want to relive the memories at the site.
The site of the former Henry Pratt Co. manufacturing center, located at 401 S. Highland Ave., is now a distribution center for recycling company Terracycle.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/12/henry-pratt-mass-shooting-seven-years-later/
