SALT LAKE CITY — A 14-year-old LDS girl was among those killed Wednesday in the Florida high school shooting, church officials confirmed.
Alaina Petty died from her injuries after being shot at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. She was a member of the Coral Springs Ward of the Coral Springs Florida Stake, officials from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints confirmed in an emailed statement Thursday, as reported by KSL.com.
Another member of the ward, Madeleine Wilford, 17, was seriously injured in the mass shooting and is receiving medical treatment at a local hospital.
“To all of the victims and their loved ones, we extend our love,” the church statement said. “These are hours filled with grief, emptiness and a terrible sense of loss. We unite our prayers with millions of others who are mourning and praying for them.”
Petty’s great-aunt Claudette McMahon Joshi wrote in a Facebook post, “There are no hashtags for moments like this, only sadness,” asking people to lift up Petty’s family in prayer.
Petty was a “valiant young member of the Coral Springs Ward,” church leader Stephen E. Thompson wrote in an update.
Associated Press contributed to this story.
Read the full story here.
Written by Tracie Snowder, KSL.com
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @STGnews
Copyright 2018 KSL.com
And what of the 16 other victims ? No importance ?
Ronbo, I agree! The other 16 victims aren’t recognized because they weren’t members of the LDS Church? I call BS!
It’s clear these members of the LDS church don’t look in the mirror in the morning. absolutely one of the most disgusting articles to be put on St George news.
evidently the people at St George news have absolutely no morals whatsoever and then the St George news editor censors what we post ? it’s clear to see what their religious point of view isn’t it ?
geez louise, dump, never seen u get ur feathers so ruffled. It was a ksl article ‘reprint’. go take ur meds and calm down.
geez louise idiot Bob I’m doing exactly the same thing you do . now go take your meds and lighten up
Look everybody ( comments ) aka Bob is now complaing about Mormon bashing I always knew he was a fake
You obviously did not read the entire article. Wow, wow, wow.
Strikeout4 is a loser, can’t read and is just a miserable person..Too many tide pods and he’s out of crayons…
This is without a doubt one of the most ignorant articles ever on St George news. the only reason this article was written is because she’s LDS ! thanks for your sympathy for the other 16 people that died
Shame on whoever conceived and wrote this article. Way to be insensitive and bigoted.
It was written by a member of the LDS church. who else would of written an article like this. This just shows how ignorant and disrespectful they are. This is ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING.
and shame on St George news for posting this Mormon garbage
What was so insensitive? Splain lefty Lucy.
The article is insensitive because it portrays the idea that we here in Utah only care about the Mormon victims. It would be different if the victims were from Utah or had a connection besides being in the Mormon church. This kind of stuff makes me sick to my stomach. Your going to lose many readers STGnews, myself included.
I’m not a Mormon and not a native Utahan. See no insensitivity. You are being a bigoted snowflake.
If St George news has any dignity whatsoever they will delete this article immediately !
KSL is an unofficial media apparatus of the LDS corporation.
Had these victims had ties to UT this would’ve been ok to publish.
Just b/c they are members in Utah’s official state religion does not make them deserve special recognition over other victims
Wow, just wow…..I could hardly believe what I was reading. And that was just the headline
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, what’s the problem? Did you read the entire article.? Probably not but you will now and make excuses for your religious bigotry.
Those are fighting words, ladybug is in no way a religious bigot. I have read enough of her comments to prove otherwise, she may be the most Christ loving of all the people who comment on stgnews.com, you better watch out for her fury.
Thanks for the kind words No Filter
I’ve read them also. Not afraid of anyones ‘fury’. I’m not a butt hurt snowflake. I still say you are a bigot and intolerant. Get over yourself.
Interesting how you use the word bigot and intolerable. It’s ironic how you are intolerant of what you call my intolerance. Its quite fascinating.
I’ll say this desertgirl, there are things i don’t tolerate….i dont tolerate my kids being mean to me, drugs in my home, my superiors at work snapping at me, my coworkers setting me up to fail, thieves, lies and I could go on but I don’t want to think that hard…..have a blessed day!
As for the word bigot. That word has never been in my vocabulary. Ive never used that word. Ive never called someone a bigot. Nor will i ever. In fact, i have too keep looking up the definition. It says, intolerant off someone’s opinion.
I’ve never considered any religion as an opinion. Religion is based on belief, not opinion.
No way could I be a religious bigot.
As for this article, its not abnormal for an LDS community to report on of one their own. What I found a wow factor is in the wake of this tragedy, in florida, that a religion was even mentioned.
May you find the strength, desertgirl, to open your eyes, to open your heart, and get passed your new found words of intolerance and bigotry.
Am i intolerant of the morman beliefs? Perhaps. Do I question them calling themselves Christians? Yes. Do I call them a cult? Yes. Are Mormans Christians, No. Am i intolerant of them calling themselves Christians? Yes.
Mormans are Mormans they are not Christians. If they were Christians they wouldn’t call themselves Mormans. What separates them? The book of Mormon. They should be called, the church of Joseph Smith.
Are you done calling me intolerant and a bigot?
17 lives were lost, thousands affected. Lives changed forever. They are experiencing the greatest heartbreak a parent will ever face in this life. Pray for the people, desertgirl. Don’t worry about trying to figure me out.
LOL LBA. You know, the bible as we know it was put together by the catholic church way back in the day. Before the bible all that they had was a series of writings that just circulated around in early xtian communites. The catholics got to pick and choose what they wanted to include or omit, and they assembled what is today the bible. You could extend that to say that anyone who believes the bible is the ‘word of god’ ,or whatever, and who is not a catholic, is actually an apostate and a heretic. And i guess we also can’t forget that a big chunk of it was just ‘borrowed’ from the jews as well. This religious stuff is all very strange.
Thank you for commenting Bob……God made a believer out of me, if I didn’t live through and see what I’ve seen….I wouldn’t be saved by the blood of Jesus!
Through great tragedy comes great belief.
I’ve got my own story Bob. Maybe I’ll write that book. All I know, is i was once blind but now I see.
All I know, is I suffered depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts (yep, i thought the world and my family would be better without me, I hoped to OD on meth- i failed miserably at that, my sister tried to commit suicide at 15…its just awful childhood, in spite of what people saw on the outsiide)
and now I have peace of mind. No antidrepessant drugs ever. No anxiety prescriptions ever, no psychiatrist ever, no counseling, nothing but the fight and will to stay close to God’s word. I knew Bob, i knew all along God existed, I just didnt know how to get too the light… In spite of all the opposition to bring me down and call me delusional, and say I have mental illness (hi theone ❤) i have found the light in my heart
Bob, I’m more sane than I’ve ever been….Thank you Jesus!
Let me clarify an awful childhood, I didn’t have physical abuse, it was mental and emotional. My mom is dead. She died in 2016 RIP mom. But I can say, I’ve never had a conversation with her. Everything was deceptive, a cover up, a lie to look better from the outside (And she was good, had everyone fooled!) She was mad at God. Against Jesus…and as a sensitive, curious person that i am, I learned only anger and rage and to trust no one, thats what i learned from the cover ups and lies……it was stupid. It’s stupid not to just talk and learn andx go back and f ortb with ideas….As for my dad, he went to church every Sunday and I never heard him say Jesus at home (every other weekend visits) what is wrong with my parents? I was a commodity and a tax write off.
If anyone is not real and authentic with your kids. Please, please I plea to you…drop the act, drop the defenses, drop the “i’m perfect” act. Nobodys perfect, we all have strughles. Just talk and have conversarions…
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life ❤
I bring this up becasuse because my gosh, the world has gone mad! Open your eyes, open your hearts- you know what’s going on with your kids-stop denying it! Call the cops on them.
May they all rest in peace. Love and prayers to all the families and students that have witnessed this terror. Many lives affected, may God hear the cries of the people and give them peace that surpasses all understanding.
In Jesus name Amen!
New low for SG News and LDS Church. Why is the victim’s religion a factor here? Did the shooter care? Disgraceful.
It doesn’t say much for the people working at St George news does it !
I have found this same article online in many Idaho news papers as well. You can tell who runs the news in Utah and Idaho, the CHURCH.
ST GEORGE NEWS ….DELETE THIS ARTICLE. !!! and show some respect to the families of the other 16 people that were murdered !
A horrible article. Drop the LDS crap!
Pure and simple Mormon ignorance and bigotry at it’s finest
Why is giving the people of St.George and the LDS church ONE article a big deal. We give articles to gays, we give articles to accidents, we give articles to businesses. Why the outrage to an article to try to make personal the horrible attack that took place. I am not Mormon but I am amazed by all the morons offended by this.
Kyle, speaking for all us morons, you are an idiot. I think we morons feel it is very inappropriate to single out a victim due to her religion as somehow being more tragic than the death of the other 16 victims that were not Mormon. Be very leary of calling everyone a moron when you are a minority of one. You seem to have a very high opinion of yourself that seems unwarranted in this case.
422 nailed it
KSL’s article was in bad taste, but they also had a much larger piece on the KSL site that named all of the victims. It almost feels like we’re being pranked 🙂
Oh wow you’re a Moron because you’re offended by some of the comments
you don’t get it either..hahahaha! makes you a moron !
They printed a story of local interest. But some hate filled morons just don’t get it.
You must be a moron because of your hate filled comment then eh ?
you don’t get it either..hahahaha! makes you a moron !
What hate filled comment, Striker? You are a bigot and blame others. Who is the moron? Not John.
Um, when John said “hate filled morons just don’t get it”. Thought that was pretty obvious.
desertgirl uh you’re the moron
Get a life , loser….
Typical name caller with no actual debate or argument. My guess is you are a sheep of the Democratic Party. There was no hate filled comment. Name calling? Okay, moron.
John….get a life loser
Striker, proves you are a meat puppet, can’t even come up with a thought of your own..typical dumbocrat libtard..hahahahaha
strikeout4 has run out of crayons and his diaper needs changing..I can smell the little turd all the way out here in desert springs..
You are correct John. Bigots and the real idiots and morons. Most of these ignorant fools didn’t even read the article. “To all of the victims and their loved ones, we extend our love,” the church statement said. “These are hours filled with grief, emptiness and a terrible sense of loss. We unite our prayers with millions of others who are mourning and praying for them.”
Never enough for the seculars that have contributed to a society lacking in faith of any kind and moral standards. Most of the reason for sick kids and mental illness.
Unfortunately, so many who comment on things in the St George News allow CNN, MSNBC, FOX NEWS and the other main stream media outlets to tell them what to think and when to think it. It’s a sad state when people are calling things news just because Whoopie “the cushion” Goldberg said it on “the view”..
You screwed up StG News, it’s ok. Just own it, apologize, and move on.
Having read all of the comments above, I’ll say two things involved: 1. Religious bigotry aka ignorance. 2. People have big mouths and don’t actually read articles before commenting.
This is a community made of a majority of Mormons, it is therefore more emotional when a church member is killed. (and for you name-calling bigots, I am not a Mormon defending my religion). I know that many of you wouldn’t have a problem with mention of a gay, Muslim, environmentalist, or a MSM leftist pundit, etc. Deny all you want…bs.
“To all of the victims and their loved ones, we extend our love,” the church statement said. “These are hours filled with grief, emptiness and a terrible sense of loss. We unite our prayers with millions of others who are mourning and praying for them.”
They may have added that comment, but the main basis of the article was based on one (and the other wounded) LDS person., insinuating, heavily, that their deaths were somehow more tragic. They even mention the wounded victim, but none of the others got anything but a pc mention at the end.
Don’t waste your time trying to explain to desertgirl. She is not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Another dumb-downed Democrat with typical sheep responses. My guess is you never got out of high school. You and your negative buds are exactly what is wrong with society. Bigots and intolerant. Go away and grow up. Done with the haters on this topic. Yeah, you Real Life.
This tantrum from bigoted snowflakes is HILARIOUS!
What part of “this is a completely appropriate news story that appeals to 70% of the population” don’t you understand? The average news story anywhere maybe appeals to 25% of the population / readership. That’s the nature of “news”. When you’re more mature and less bigoted maybe you can say “meh” and move on like the rest of us do with 75% of the news stories we see that don’t appeal to us.
I would love to know who this article “appeals” to. I’d like to not associate with them if they think that someone’ life is more important than any others just because of their religion. How would you feel if the article was written about the “one” black person killed? (I don’t know if there was any, but that is just an example.)
Your an idiot. You think this story alone appeals to 70% of the readers because it’s about the death of an LDS girl. There where 16 other good people who died in the same massacre. People like you defend your church so hard that you don’t care who you hurt along the way. Give me one good evidence based fact that your church and your beliefs are true…. You can’t! Faith does not equal fact.
I tried to look for logic that would make this appropriate for a secular news outlet to publish, and it just isn’t there.
I’m a mormon and I know the LDS church would never claim me if I got massacred.
For a dedicated LDS publication this would be fine.
In this case it just seems to show favoritism and bias. If it was an article naming all the victims and just mentioned that this one was LDS that might be fine.
Don’t forget they also mentioned the name of the OTHER LDS girl that was only wounded!
I love how the majority of people on this page are commenting on the fact that the deceased girl (May she and the others rest in peace) was mormon and not that these shootings are happening on a almost weekly basis now.
When did someone’s religion (or lack thereof) become a greater concern than finding a way to prevent violence like this?
This senseless act of terrorism makes me sad.
The fact that we as a society are doing NOTHING to stop it makes me even sadder.
We discussed it in other articles
Lot of psychos in the society as well as a lot of high power assault rifles
The whole “let’s tackle the mental health” angle prob wouldn’t be all that effective since psychos like this cannot be screened out in the same way that someone with a more outwardly obvious mental illness like schizophrenia could be. Psychopaths are often very good at hiding what they are.
More straight forward steps would be a more heavily secured and armed society– think armed guards and metal detectors at every school. Or there’s the option of banning assault weapons w/ hi-cap mags as during the clinton era.
Realistically, in a country of over 300,000,000 souls, these events are still quite rare, esp considering how prevalent ownership of assault weapons has become in the US.
The AR in “AR-15” rifle stands for ArmaLite rifle, after the company that developed it in the 1950s. “AR” does NOT stand for “assault rifle” or “automatic rifle.”
AR-15-style rifles are no more powerful than other hunting rifles of the same caliber and in most cases are chambered in calibers less powerful than common big-game hunting cartridges like the 30-06 Springfield and .300 Win. Mag.
If someone calls an AR-15-style rifle an “assault weapon,” he or she either supports banning these firearms or does not understand their function and sporting use, or both. “Assault weapon” is a political term created by California anti-gun legislators to ban some semi-automatic rifles there in the 1980s.
Your getting stuck on little irrelevant nuances, john. The m-16 was designed to kill people in combat situations plain and simply. AR-15 is fundamentally an m-16 minus full-auto or burst firing selection (which isn’t practical 99% of the time anyway). I own an AR-15; you don’t have to lecture me about what is and isn’t an assault rifle. Call it a military-style rifle if it makes you feel better.
And really, you could hardly design a better light weapon to massacre people. It’s light, easy to use, it’s reliable, it fires a lot of rounds in a short time, plenty of hi-cap mag variations. It makes the ak-47 look like a heavy piece of antique garbage IMO, and best of all AR-15s HAVE BECOME DIRT CHEAP! Saw them around last black friday for something like $299, including a 30rd mag, easily within a price range even an 18yo deadbeat psychopath could afford. As bad as it is to say, the AR-15 is about the perfect weapon to massacre anything from k thru 12, and we’ve seen it happen. Crazy world. AR-15 is MOST DEFINITELY AN ASSAULT RIFLE.
And I forgot, the 5.56 nato is an extremely powerful and compact round. It can kill just as effectively as much larger and powerful rounds, hence it has become the standard for our military. All your points are null, john.
bubba, the ar 15 is not an assault rifle…period..
The AR-15 is an assault rifle, not because of its name, but because of how it is made. The only difference is it is semi automatic rather than full auto like the military version the M16. The same bullets, the same clips, Your theory about hunting rifles is flawed. How many Winchester hunting rifles have you seen with large ammo clips. Not to mention most hunting rifles are bolt action. You can’t rapid fire a hunting rifle like you can an AR-15. I have never seen an AR-15 on a hunting magazine as the preferred weapon of choice. I like to shoot guns like the next person, but we need to make it harder to get these kind of weapons. A person who wants a gun should have to go through training, a background check, and a mental health examination. Our idiot president signed a bill blocking Obama-era background checks on guns for people with mental illnesses. Your right wing media says it is a mental health issue, well then why did Trump block a bill to prevent those with mental illnesses to get a gun. You see we aren’t trying to take guns away from good law abiding people, just make sure the wrong people don’t get them.
you need a lesson in firearms panty waist
Maybe an untrained girly man like you can’t rapid fire a semi auto hunting rifle..But those of us with 25 or more years in the military know how to use our weapons…..This is a fact..The AR in “AR-15” rifle stands for ArmaLite rifle, after the company that developed it in the 1950s. “AR” does NOT stand for “assault rifle” or “automatic rifle.”..look it up
The AR15 has mean looking plastic on it..oooooooh evil weapon.. the ruger mini 14 fires faster but it’s ok because it has a wooden stock… no filter, you’re an idiot. Banning weapons will work, just like banning drugs worked so well..
At the end of the day it isn’t all that offensive is they want to give special recognition to the lds victims. It’s not politically correct at all. I’m not really offended by it. It’s just slightly strange in a way. RIP to all victims of this terrible event.
Prophet loser John get his pretty pink panties ruffled a bit didn’t he LOL
striker4, only you wear the panties around here.. does eating those tide pods prevent skid marks?
Hey John it seems those tide pods your eating are effecting your limited mental status. I feel bad about your pretty pink panties…have a nice day
Strikeout 4, beat ya to it parrot…hahahahaha, Tide makes juice packs too ! I’ll send you a coupon..
Hey John you should loosen up those pretty pink panties you got on you could actually get some air and get a clue
Now that is funny, regardless of the origin of the writer you aimed it at.