“It’s with a heavy heart and deep sorrow, Stacee Etcheber has passed away. Please pray for our family during this difficult time. She leaves behind two adoring beautiful children and an amazing husband. Thank you to everyone for all the support in this past few days,” Etcheber’s brother Al Etcheber wrote on Facebook. “We will dearly miss you.”
Here’s a look at Stacee Etcheber’s life and her husband’s desperate search to find her.
Her Husband Thought She Was Safe, So He Left Her to Help Save Lives
Etchebeber’s brother Al Etcheber told the Mercury News that his brother and Stacee rented a friend’s Las Vegas timeshare.
When the shooting broke out at around 10:30 p.m. Sunday night, Etcheber thought his wife and the two people he was with were safe. He told them to run away, but he ran towards danger to help save lives.
“My brother saw people had been shot. He tried to assist them,” Al Etcheber told the Mercury News. “After the first barrage, he told his wife and two other people he was with to run. Then the second barrage of guns fired. He couldn’t find his wife.”
Etcheber drove injured people to a nearby hospital on the back of the pickup truck. When he went back for his wife, the area was cornered off. “When he came back, everything was cordoned off,” Al Etcheber said.
Al Etcheber told ABC7 that his brother pushed his wife under a steel barrier partition and thought she was safe while he helped others.
“He stood back, he stood back to help those victims that were shot and he stuck with them, he stuck with them all the way to the hospital,” Etcheber’s brother said.
Vinnie Etcheber Went to Every Hospital in Las Vegas to Find His Wife
Al Etcheber told the Mercury News that Etcheber spent over 18 hours trying to find his wife at every hospital in Las Vegas. Al Etcheber said he drove to Las Vegas to help his brother find Stacee.
Etcheber eventually had to go to the Las Vegas police command center to wait for news about his wife. Authorities had trouble identifying her since Etcheber had his wife’s cell phone and identification card at the time of the shooting.
Al Etcheber said his brother and sister-in-law ere “very community-oriented couple… They have two great kids, involved in sports — football, volleyball soccer.”
Stacee is also survived by her 13-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son. KTVU reportsthat the San Francisco Police officers association called Stacee a “wonderful caring wife, mother and daughter. She will be terribly missed.”
“With heavy hearts, the San Francisco Police Department today mourns the passing of Stacee Etcheber,” San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said in a statement. “Stacee was taken in a senseless act of violence as her husband, SFPD Officer Vinnie Etcheber, heroically rushed to aid shooting victims in Las Vegas on Sunday.”
Stacee Wasn’t the Only Bay Area Native Killed in Las Vegas
As NBC Bay Area reported, Stacee wasn’t the only Bay Area woman killed during the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Michelle Vo, who graduated from Independence High School in San Jose in 2003, was also killed.
The 32-year-old Vo worked in Mountain View before she moved to Southern California. According to her LinkedIn profile, Vo worked for New York Life Securities in Los Angeles and was a graduate of UC Davis.