Hundreds of mourners gathered in Evesham, N.J., yesterday evening to commemorate the life of Christina Grimmie — the 22-year-old YouTube musician and Voice contestant who was fatally shot during a meet-and-greet with fans over the weekend. Mayor Robert Brown, close friends, pastors, and Grimmie’s brother, Marcus — who is credited with tackling her assailant and thereby preventing any further injuries — spoke at the emotional gathering.
“She was arms wide open,” Marcus said of the way in which Grimmie unknowingly greeted her killer, according to the Courier-Post. “She had no idea.”
“She loved this town, she loved this state, she loved singing, she loved the Lord, and she loved me, and she was just my baby sister,” he added, according to Billboard. Marcus also thanked Adam Levine, Grimmie’s coach on The Voice, who offered to pay for her funeral, as well as Selena Gomez, whose stepfather was Grimmie’s manager, and who had tearfully paid tribute to her longtime friend onstage at a recent concert.
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Attendees wore ‘Team Grimmie’ shirts and held candles during the half-hour ceremony, according to Billboard, which concluded with a bagpiper performing ‘Amazing Grace’.
Additionally, Marcus offered condolences to the victims of a massacre at an Orlando, Fla., gay nightclub the following evening — the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. “About four miles away from where we were staying, there was a huge tragedy to Orlando, to the U.S., to the LGBT community, and to the whole world,” he said. “I have no words. All of those people that died and are suffering. My heart goes out.”
“You can cry and close your mind, be empty, and turn your back,” Mayor Brown told attendees, per E! News, “or you can do what [Christina] would want: smile and open your eyes — smile, love, and go on.”
