Victims in deadly Texas football party rampage remembered
An Austin native was one of nine people who died after a gunman opened fire during a football viewing party at a home in Plano, Texas, in suburban Dallas Sunday night.
Tony Cross, a Dallas resident in his 30s, who made a living providing 3-D animation services, was one of the eight victims the gunman allegedly shot and killed, friends said.
Plano police confirmed an officer fatally shot the gunman at the scene.
Cross graduated from high school in 2003, friends said.
“He was boisterous, vivacious and had a laugh that you knew came from the core of his being and made you want to laugh that hard with him,” Rachel Vinyard, who has known him since she was 14, said.
"He was himself 100 percent of the time: fun and genuine. The world needed a Tony Cross," Vinyard said.
“He was a great guy – big into four-wheeling, hanging with friends, and an amazing 3-D animator,” friend Chris Griesemer, who worked with Cross in the past, said.
“The world is less without him.”
Multiple people said they loved Cross’s impressive beard, “which was only rivaled by the size of his heart,” friend Ty Smith said.
Debbie Lane told WFAA-TV that her daughter, Meredith Lane, who was hosting the game night party, was among those killed in the shooting.
Lane said her daughter, a native of Georgia, owned the home and had recently divorced her husband of six years.
Police have not yet released much information about the shooter, thought to be Lane's ex-husband. Plano police Chief Gregory W. Rushin said the shooter "was known by people in the residence," and he had a "relationship with that house."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
