Ralph Brewer has a favorite picture of his youngest brother Peyton Brewer-Ross. In it the younger man is sporting a red fringed Randy Macho Man Savage Slim Jim jacket and grinning ear to ear.
“Not many people could pull off wearing that jacket,” Brewer said. “Peyton could.”
Ross was wearing that same jacket the day his daughter Elle was born two years ago, something the family celebrated with a birthday party earlier this month. He would wear it playing his beloved cornhole.
Ross is among the 18 people confirmed dead in the wake of Maine’s deadliest mass shootings Wednesday night in Lewiston. He was killed playing cornhole with friends at Schemengees Bar and Grill when a gunman walked in and opened fire.
“Peyton and Elle, those two were a pair,” Brewer said. “She is a total daddy’s girl — the first word that ever came out of her mouth was ‘daddy.’”
Now the little girl is heartbreakingly asking where her daddy is. Her mother Rachel and the rest of the family have few answers to give, Brewer said.
“Rachel and Peyton had been a couple for so many years,” Brewer said. “He finally popped the question and they were set to get married — they had everything lined up.”
It was the same in other parts of his life, where everything pointed to a bright future.
“He had graduated from Maine Maritime Academy, he was in the pipefitters union and had a really great group of friends and family,” Brewer said. “He and Rachel were looking to purchase a house and it was all coming together.”
The one minor annoyance in his life was his car being in the shop the last few weeks after being in a fender-bender. It left the couple with only one vehicle and Ross with no way to get to his cornhole games at Schemengees.
Until Wednesday.
“He was happy to get that car back so he could go play that night in a [cornhole] tournament,” Brewer said. “Hindsight is 20-20, but you should not have to worry about some crazy gunman coming in and killing you.”
From what he has been told by people familiar with what happened there that night, Brewer said his brother was playing in the “board one position” which would have put him in the direct line of sight when the gunman entered.
“I don’t think he had a chance,” Brewer said. “He was probably one of the first people shot.”
The shootings in Lewiston are the 565th mass casualty event this year in the U.S., and Brewer is certain the number will climb.
“It’s like ‘Groundhog Day,’” he said, referring to the movie in which a character is forced to relive the same day over and over. “There is some crazy gunman, he shoots a bunch of people, rinse and repeat.”
For now, Brewer is not focusing too much on gun violence in this country, or on the ongoing manhunt for the man accused of murdering his brother.
“I am doing what I can so Rachel can focus on Elle,” he said. “I’m the oldest brother and that’s what I do.”
He is also spending his time making sure people think of his brother as he lived, not as he died.
“He is such a character,” Brewer said. “We called him ‘the life of the party’ and I don’t think he ever met anyone he did not like.”
A GoFundMe has been established for Ross’ life partner and daughter.