Christina Grimmie. A beautiful soul with the voice of an angel. Sadly, Christina was taken from Earth far too soon. On June 11th, her life was taken from her by Kevin James Loibl. Christina was on tour with a band called Before You Exit as their opening act. They had just played a show in Orlando, Florida, which happened to be the hometown show for Before You Exit. After the concert, Christina, who loved her fans very dearly went out to take pictures and sign autographs for those lovely fans. Kevin was waiting in line for his turn to "meet Christina". Sadly, little did Christina know, he had more plans than just to get a picture with her. Christina greeted Kevin with open arms for a hug, as she would do for any other fan, when he pulled a gun and began firing. Luckily, Christina's older brother Mark happened to be at the show that night. Mark tackled Kevin in order to prevent him from shooting others at the venue. That was the moment when Kevin turned the gun on himself and pulled the trigger, shooting himself. Mark is a hero in my eyes for what he did.
Since Christina's tragic death, police have found out a lot of information about Kevin, such as that he was kind of obsessed with Christina. He believed that one day him and Christina would get married, which is why he lost weight, got his teeth whitened, and received surgery in order to make Christina fall in love with him. He even started believing in God because of Christina's strong Christian faith.
So many have been affected by Christina. Christina posted covers on YouTube and she even auditioned for The Voice, where she got all four of the judges to turn their chairs around. She was on Team Adam and placed third. Comments about Christina's death came from people including Selena Gomez, Adam Levine and more. Many people including Selena Gomez and Twenty One Pilots dedicated songs to Christina. Adam Levine even offered to pay for Christina's funeral. However one of the most touching comments on Christina's death came from Mark. A couple of days after Christina's death, a memorial service was held in their hometown, where again Mark said some beautiful words about how Christina loved everyone and how dearly she will be missed.
It is very tragic how someone like Christina had to lose their life. She was so young, only 22 years old. She has so much more life left to live and explore. All this happened because of a gun and a man behind it. There clearly could not have been much security at the venue, although they claim that even though there aren't metal detectors, they still check all bags at the door. There needs to be some sort of change here. Most people can't even get into a concert with a water bottle, yet this man somehow got in with a gun. Concert venues need to tighten up their security and every person coming in should have to be checked. Also, this country's gun laws need to be changed. We have so much access to guns and they are so easy to be purchased. Now I am not saying every person who owns a gun uses it for harm, but because the laws are so loose, it makes it easy for crazy people to get them and use them for harm. Our country has had so many shootings. Guns should be much harder to buy, or better yet be illegal because if you compare the amount of shootings in the USA to other countries where guns are illegal, the difference is astonishing. However, gun laws are a whole other topic.
The point is, we lost an amazing person. Christina is now safe from all of the harm in the world. May she rest in peace and know that she is missed by so many, but that her music will always live on.
