Funerals for 14 killed in Calif. massacre somberly begin

COVINA, Calif. (AP) — On the morning of Dec. 2, Yvette Velasco got dressed up and flat-ironed her hair. It was an important day: The 27-year-old was going to receive a gold badge officially recognizing her as a San Bernardino County health inspector at a holiday work event.

The world now knows what happened: Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, stormed into the gathering, opening fire on Farook's colleagues. Velasco and 13 others were killed in what the FBI is investigating as an act of terrorism.

One week and a day after the massacre, Velasco's friends and family gathered Thursday for an outdoor funeral, at a spot on a hill chosen by her three older sisters and parents in remembrance of her love of nature. Her small dark wooden casket draped with white flowers was placed beneath an overcast sky, as friends and family tearfully recalled Velasco's bright smile, early wisdom and determination to succeed as an environmental health inspector.

"She was more than our sister," Velasco's sister, Erica Porteous, 37, said. "She was our soul mate."

The ceremony marked the start of a grim procession expected to take place throughout Southern California over the next week: about a dozen memorials, funerals and burials for those killed in the attack.