On August 23, 2023, a mass shooting at Cook’s Corner, a biker bar in Trabuco Canyon, California, left three patrons dead. One of them was 67-year-old John Leehey of Irvine, an urban planner and landscape architect who was at the bar with friends when the shooting began. Leehey is remembered by friends and family as a cheerful presence who brightened every room he entered; a GoFundMe was set up to support his family.

Authorities identified the shooter as 59-year-old John Snowling, a retired Ventura Police Department sergeant who had traveled from Ohio and reportedly targeted his estranged wife, Marie. Snowling shot his wife, who survived, then fired indiscriminately at patrons; he was armed with multiple firearms, including three handguns and a shotgun. Deputies from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department exchanged gunfire with Snowling after he fired at at least one patrol vehicle, and Snowling was killed at the scene. Searches were later conducted at a residence linked to Snowling in Camarillo and multiple items were processed as evidence.

What details about John Leehey’s life or the evening at Cook’s Corner might help others who knew him provide information?