Fort Worth community honors slain Junior ROTC instructor Gene Bass in candlelight vigil
Students of Master Sergeant Gene Bass gathered outside Polytechnic High School in Fort Worth on Saturday, the exact place where he taught them lessons they say they still carry with them today.
They brought balloons and lit candles to honor the life of a man who gave so much of himself to young people through the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, or JROTC.
"[JROTC] taught me a lot, and he taught me a lot by just being there to coach me on what not to do and what to follow and it was just, basically like a father figure," said a former student Sirtavion Tell.
"Always hold on to the good memories that you had of this wonderful man hold on to this memories that you had of him, that you have of him when things get dark," said a former co-worker Lela Manning. "When you feel like it's the midnight hour and nobody hears you, understand that he is still with you."
According to an arrest affidavit, Gene Bass's son Xavier Bass allegedly shot and killed him in the front yard of his home on Chesapeake Bay Drive in Fort Worth on June 28.
Police say Xavier Bass, 26, was arrested the day after the shooting in Valdosta, Georgia, where he lives.
Bass was a JROTC instructor with Crowley ISD at the time of his death.