Nohemi Gonzalez, 23, was a student at California State University’s Long Beach campus who was studying overseas. “Our thoughts and prayers are with her family, friends, and the Cal State Long Beach community”.
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A vigil for Gonzalez will be held at 4 p.m. on Sunday, and officials said homecoming activities will proceed as planned over the weekend.
“We’re very grateful that we are able to know the fate of Nohemi as soon as we have been, and that is because of her friends”.
“Our university stands with our almost 80 foreign exchange students from France as they struggle with this tragedy”, she added.
Inside the school, tearful students hugged one another for support as they left notes in a book of condolences and lit candles in memory of their classmate. Nohemi Gonzalez, an El Monte resident, was a senior studying industrial design.
On Friday, several sites around Paris were targeted in a coordinated assault by gunmen and bombers in what the Paris public prosecutor said killed 129 people and wounded 352, of whom 99 remain in critical condition.
She was shot and killed while eating at a restaurant in Paris, the only American to lose her life in the terrorist attacks.
“She was a great girl, one of the best”, her aunt, Sandra Felt, told NBC News.
Elko reported that SDSU now has 34 students studying overseas in France, eight of whom are in Paris at three different schools.
Martin Herman, Department of Design chair at the university, said he hoped Gonzalez’ “voice, her bright spirit, her playfulness, her idealism, hopes, continue to inspire and illuminate our university family and all those that she touched”.
“I feel lost, sadness, and she was my only daughter”, Beatrez Gonzalez- Hernandez told ABC7. She was killed while having dinner with friends at a popular bistro, La Belle Equipe.
He also ordered all Capitol flags to be flown at half-staff for all the victims in the terrorist attacks.
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“We grieve for [Gonzalez] today and give our hearts to her grieving family and boyfriend”, LaForte posted on Facebook.
