Aug 4, 2019 4 min read

A graduate of Washington High School was among the nine people who were killed early Sunday in a mass shooting at a Dayton, Ohio, bar.

Nicholas P. Cumer, 25, was also a graduate student at St. Francis University in Loretto and was fulfilling a school-related internship in Dayton when he was killed, the university president said.

“We join the nation in mourning Nicholas, alongside all of the victims of this tragedy,” university president Malachi Van Tassell stated online in a message to students Sunday afternoon.

Cumer was enrolled in the university’s cancer care graduate program, and also earned his undergraduate degree at St. Francis, the school said.

Rueben Brock, an assistant professor of psychology at California University of Pennsylvania, memorialized Cumer on Facebook, saying it was heartbreaking to hear about the man’s death.

“This is just awful. Nick was a good kid,” Brock stated in his post. “This feels different when it’s someone you know.”

Brock said it would be impossible to find someone with something bad to say about Cumer.

“He was just a sweetheart of a guy,” Brock said.

He said his daughter Dominique attended her high school prom with Cumer.

“It’s just awful. He was absolutely a wonderful kid,” Brock said.

Twenty-seven people also were injured when the gunman, Connor Betts, 24, of Bellbrook, Ohio, opened fire shortly after 1 a.m. on Ned Peppers Bar in the city’s historic Oregon district.

Betts, who was wearing armor at the time, was shot and killed by police at the scene.

Cumer was a 2012 graduate of Washington High School, where he played on the girls volleyball team, said Teresa Booker, his former coach at Wash High.

Booker said the school didn’t have a boys volleyball team, that Cumer loved the sport and asked to play on her team.

“We said, ‘Why not?'” she said.

She said Cumer was a young man who would have done great things in his life.

“He’s a beautiful soul,” she said.

Cumer, who grew up in East Washington, was a son of Vicky and Ron Cumer. Both Brock and Booker said the family had asked for privacy at this time.

He was one week shy of completing his internship at Maple Tree Cancer Alliance, a nonprofit organization specializing in improving the quality of life of cancer victims while focusing on spiritual and physical health, the group stated on its Facebook page.

Cumer was among three of the organization’s trainers who were shot; two of whom are expected to make full recoveries, Maple Tree stated.

Maple Tree said it had offered Cumer a full-time job last week.

Stephen M. LoRusso, Cumer’s professor at St. Francis, said he was still coming to terms with the news that his student had been killed.

LoRusso said Cumer had shared from his internship that it was important to him that his patients felt comfortable talking to him.

“Yes, we are people who are helping this population with quality of life and fitness but one of my main goals here is to get to know my patients to the level of calling them friends to make them feel welcome when they work with me,” LoRusso said, quoting something Cumer had expressed to him from Dayton.

Pat Fitzgerald, another St. Francis professor, said Cumer had a big smile and great work ethic.

“He was always sincerely polite and professional. And he was always ready to give or receive a terrific hug,” Fitzgerald said.

He was a member of the undergraduate marching band at his university, where he also worked with the band as a graduate assistant.

“This senseless act has cut short the life of an incredibly gifted and talented young man,” said Dan Atwood, the university’s band director.

“The loss of Nick has left a hole in his family, our campus, our band family, and in each one of us who were fortunate enough to get to know him and call him our friend,” Atwood said.

The university was planning to celebrate a Mass this week in Cumer’s honor, said Marie Young, director of marketing and communications at St. Francis.