Family, Friends of Slain Campbell Tech Exec Struggle to Make Sense of Shooting
CAMPBELL (KPIX) -- Family and friends of a Campbell man who was gunned down in front of his own home nearly two weeks ago said Friday that it makes no sense why he would have been targeted.
Greg Cirimele, 42, was the "life of the party" who had "hundreds of friends," according to his parents, best friend and neighbor.
"He was that kid that just -- you couldn't not like him, he was full of life, he was full of energy," said Cirimele's mother Kim Cirimele.
On Nov. 2 at 10:45 a.m. Campbell police responded to a shooting on West Sunnyoaks Avenue. A witness told 911 dispatchers that he saw a blue Saturn stopped in the middle of the road and that Cirimele walked up to the driver and began to punch him, according to the Mercury News. The man behind the wheel took out a gun and began firing several rounds at Cirimele hitting him twice in the chest, the newspaper reported.
The witness followed the Saturn and gave dispatchers the license plate. The Mercury News reported that, within minutes, police arrested 18-year-old Nickolas Amman at a home a mile away.
"It could've been any of us in the neighborhood and I think that's the scariest part about this all, is that it was just so random," said Cirimele's nextdoor neighbor Morgan Musto.
KPIX has reached out to Campbell police but has yet to receive a response.
A candlelight vigil was held soon after the fatal shooting which drew a large crowd to remember the Silicon Valley executive. Candles continue to burn for Cirimele ten days after he was killed and a heart has been drawn on the street where he collapsed.
"I'd just kind of like to know what happened. I mean it was very uncharacteristic that Greg would get into any form of an altercation," said Cirimele's best friend James Boucher.
The two, he said, spent every day together working out, playing softball and going on trips. Boucher said he met Cirimele two decades ago while playing baseball at Menlo College and the two became inseparable.
Boucher said it's because of Cirimele that he landed a job years ago and that Cirimele was the reason behind so many friendships he's formed over the years.
"Seems like everywhere he went he just made very good friendships," Boucher said. "That's why it's all so shocking and kind of incomprehensible of how this could've happened."
Musto had the same to say about Cirimele.
"He made you actually feel like he cared about what you had to say," Musto said.
Most devastating to those who know the former baseball star is that he leaves behind two young daughters and a wife.
"Loves them to death, I mean he's a real girl dad and they miss him so much," his father Gary Cirimele said.
Gary and Kim had just returned from a trip to Hawaii with their son and granddaughters.
"He was just a good, good human being," Kim said.
Cirimele's funeral is planned just before Thanksgiving. His wife told KPIX that Cirimele was her "best friend" and that they're all "shocked and devastated."
"I look at this phone every morning, there's no text," Gary said. "Didn't even get a chance to say goodbye."