Robert Adams, 40
The Yucaipa resident was known as a loving father and husband who married his high school sweetheart, friends said.
A fundraising page for his wife, Summer, and 20-month-old daughter, Savannah, had raised thousands of dollars in several hours Thursday.
Megan Neforos, who set up the page, said she knew Adams’ wife through a Facebook group for mothers of young children.
“He was her high school sweetheart. This is tragic for her,” she said. “He was an incredibly loving father and devoted husband.”
Nicholas Thalasinos, 52
He identified as a Messianic Jew and passionately defended Israel, actively debating about religion in online forums and in person, his friends said.
Only two weeks ago, Thalasinos, of Colton, was having a heated on-the-job discussion about the nature of Islam with Syed Rizwan Farook, his fellow restaurant inspector and one of the shooters.
Thalasinos’ friend, Kuuleme Stephens, told The Associated Press that she happened to call him while he was working with Farook and that he brought her into their debate, loudly declaring that Farook “doesn’t agree that Islam is not a peaceful religion.”
She heard Farook counter that Americans don’t understand Islam, and Thalasinos responded by saying, “I don’t know how to talk with him,” she said.
Stephens said she didn’t sense any pending violence at the time, and it is not clear if their debates factored in the attack. Stephens said Thalasinos did not believe his co-worker would ever turn violent.
However, Stephens said Thalasinos’ grieving wife told her later Thursday to tell the media that she now “believes her husband was martyred for his faith and beliefs.” It wasn’t immediately clear why Jennifer Thalasinos came to that conclusion.
Nicholas and Jennifer Thalasinos had recently renewed their marriage vows, and they appeared together frequently on his Facebook page.
Daniel Kaufman, 42
He ran an independently owned coffee shop inside the Inland Regional Center where the county health workers were using a hall for their holiday banquet. The shop’s workers included people with developmental disabilities, which can include epilepsy, autism and intellectual disabilities.
Kaufman, of Rialto, was an avid participant in the Original Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Southern California each spring, said friend Katherine Panowicz, who had known him for 15 years.
Michael Wetzel, 37
Friends and fellow church members appealed for help supporting his widow, Renee, a stay-at-home mom in Lake Arrowhead, Calif., and children.
“Michael was the most amazing person,” Renee Wetzel said in a statement, issued through her friend Celia Behar. The couple had five children from previous marriages and one child together.
“He was my best friend and an incredible father who was loved by all. I have never known a better person,” the statement said. “He loved his work and his family so very much. Without him, this family will never be the same. We appreciate all the love and support that everyone is showing.”
Damian Meins, 58
He was passionate about serving his community, a message he took from the priests at his Catholic high school in Riverside and carried throughout his life.
Meins never strayed far from his church or its teachings, said Walter Hackett, who met Meins some 40 years ago in high school.
“Service to others, helping others. He very much took that to heart,” Hackett said.
Hackett called his friend “a good, good guy.”
Meins married his high school sweetheart, now a Catholic school principal, and they raised two daughters, one a teacher. Meins was fondly remembered as the guy who dressed up as Santa for school pictures, according to a parent’s social media posting Thursday.
In addition to working in the public health department in San Bernardino, Meins was an extended care coordinator at St. Catherine of Alexandria School in Riverside
Tin Nguyen, 31
Tin Nguyen, a food inspector, was scheduled to get married next year.
“She was the most amazing person anyone could ever meet,” Kim Oanh said on social media. “Her heart was bigger than the sun, and her personality was addicting.”
Born in Vietnam, she lived in Santa Ana.
Isaac Amanios, 60
The supervising environmental health specialist, who also used the name Isaac Gebreslassie, was a cousin of New York Giants safety Nat Berhe.
Bennetta Betbadal, 46
Bennetta Betbadal, born in Iran in 1969, fled to America when she was 18 to “escape Islamic extremism and the persecution of Christians that followed the Iranian Revolution,” her family said in a statement.
The family statement said Betbadal settled in New York City after she came to America and eventually moved to California, where she married her husband, a police officer at Riverside Community College, in 1997.
They moved to Rialto and had three children, two boys and a girl now ages 10, 12, and 15.
Sierra Clayborn, 27
Her friends say she stood out as someone who always had an encouraging word.
Timothy J. Lee remembers meeting Clayborn in a hip-hop class at the University of California, Riverside. She was active and outgoing, praising classmates when they mastered a routine.
“She always had something encouraging to say,” Lee said.
After graduating in 2010, Clayborn worked jobs in retail and at a bank before landing a position at the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health. Like a number of other victims, she inspected restaurants.
Harry Bowman, 46
Juan Espinoza, 50
Aurora Godoy, 26
Shannon Johnson, 45
Yvette Velasco, 27
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