Wedding-day nightmare

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Surrounded by police, a distraught Angel Raven is comforted outside Club 13 on Main Street after a gunman stormed her wedding reception there late Saturday night. (TREVOR.HAGAN@FREEPRESS.MB.CA )

Clutching her cream wedding gown with its soiled hem in her hands, Angel Raven buried her face in the satin fabric Sunday to hide her tears.

At her wedding reception the night before at Club 13, a gunman opened fire, killing a 50-year-old woman, injuring two people and traumatizing countless others.

The newlyweds spent their wedding night at police headquarters, giving statements to the police and not returning home until 6:30 a.m. Sunday.

"It was supposed to be our best day. It turned into our worst day," Raven, 33, said quietly, her tired eyes staring at the ground.

Sitting on her front steps early Sunday afternoon, Raven said she had only met the victim, Cheryl Robert, that day.

Robert was the common-law partner of a family friend, and Raven said her heart went out to the woman's family.

"I'm so sorry. My thoughts go out to them. I don't know what else to say -- I'm sorry."

Raven couldn't guess why the gunman chose to attack her wedding, and stressed the couple is not affiliated with gangs.

The reception location was chosen because of its close proximity to her family's houses, she said.

Raven said she hopes that one day she and her new husband will be able to look back at their wedding and only remember the good things -- the bride's beautiful embroidered gown, the groom dressed head to toe in a sharp white tuxedo, the bridesmaids in their blue and black dresses.

Raven said she's trying not to see the shooting as a bad omen after she and her husband, Jason Rodgers, held off getting married for 18 years.

The couple met when they were both 15 and were high school sweethearts, she explained.

Eighteen years later, the couple have five children between the ages of six and 17, and a four-month-old grandson.

Raven said they eventually decided to make their commitment official for their children's sake.

"The kids kept saying, 'Are you and dad ever going to get married?' And I kept saying, 'Someday,' " Raven said fondly.

Raven was about 10 metres away from Robert when the gunman fired into the crowd through an open rear door.

Witnesses said Robert was shot in the head and her common-law partner was hit in both the upper and lower body.

Another 31-year-old woman was also shot in the upper body, police said.

"Everybody heard it," Raven said of the gunshots. At that moment, she was thankful her baby grandson and young niece and nephew, who all attended the ceremony, were not at the reception.

"That was the first relief," she said.

But her 16-year-old niece has been traumatized after a close call when a bullet zoomed past her face.

"She could feel something just burning past her face," Raven said, shuddering at the thought of what could have been.

At the time, Raven said, she was too shocked to cry -- tears she let fall freely as she recalled the events on Sunday.

"It didn't kick in. It was like a big nightmare," she explained.

Now, she said, she's suffering from some guilt.

"I let them open the door," she explained, referring to the back door that was opened just a crack to let a breeze into the overheated hall.

Mostly, though, she's angry at the gunman for putting her family and friends in danger.

"Whoever did this, they traumatized my kids," she said, adding the wedding was almost more important for the children than for her and Jason.

On Sunday, a steady stream of friends and family dropped by to offer comfort and support as Raven sat with her cocker spaniel on her front steps.

Her second-youngest daughter, a nine-year-old, gave her mother a tearful hug before heading off to a relative's house.

Raven's father stopped by and took her hands, lowering his head to hers, before whispering some kind words and leaving.

"I feel lost," Raven said. "It's like someone breaks into your house and steals your stuff ---- you feel violated."

arielle.godbout@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 27, 2009 A4