AN Irish-American teenager shot to death in last week’s Florida school massacre has been laid to rest after a private funeral service.
Cara Loughran, 14, was one of 17 people killed by a former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida when he stormed the campus on Wednesday.
Nikolas Cruz, 19, has since been charged with seventeen counts of premeditated murder.
Police say he has admitted to carrying out the atrocity.
Cara, whose father Damian moved to the US from Co. Antrim around 15 years ago, was buried after a service at St Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Coral Springs yesterday.
Please share! Here is a link to a gofundme created by my dance school to support the family of Cara Loughran who was killed in the recent school shooting. https://t.co/KQt4SylDX3
— Ciara (@ciarakilroy) February 18, 2018
The 14-year-old had studied Irish dancing at Coral Springs’ Drake School of Irish Dance, who described her as “a beautiful soul”.
"Cara always had a smile on her face. We are heartbroken as we send our love and support to her family during this horrible time," they said.
Colleagues from the teenager’s weekend job at JC Penny set up a GoFundMe page to help the Loughran family with funeral expenses – with over $15,000 raised.
They described Cara as “a wonderful kid with big dreams” who loved the beach, gymnastics and Irish dancing.
It’s understood that her brother Liam is also a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas and witnessed the attack which took his sister’s life.
