Who was Peyton Brewer-Ross? Man shot dead by Robert Card in Maine mass shooting still called upon by 2-year-old daughter to play
LEWISTON, MAINE: Peyton Brewer-Ross, 40, was among the 18 deceased victims of the harrowing Maine mass shooting of October 25.
He was at Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant for his weekly cornhole tournament when 40-year-old Robert Card allegedly opened fire, minutes after he allegedly shot dead seven people at bowling alley Just-In-Time Recreation about four miles away.
Peyton was engaged to Rachael Sloat and shared with her a 2-year-old daughter, Elle Karina Brewer-Ross.
According to People, Sloat remembers him as the “most charismatic and loving person.”
"If you ran out of gas in the middle of the night at 2 am and called him, he would be there as soon as he could, he would drop anything he was doing to help out a friend," she said.
It is Elle, however, who is presumably facing the biggest loss, as Peyton's death is incomprehensible to her, but his absence is real. The child has "moments where she is very quiet and contemplative” while she looks around for her father, mentioned Sloat.
Elle Karina Brewer-Ross waits for her father at bedtime
“They used to play a game when she would get ready for bed…and we’d stand at the top of the stairs and call down to him and say ‘Daddy, where are you?’” Sloat explained the nightly ritual she and her fiancee shared with their daughter. “He’d pop out at the foot of the stairs and go: ‘Here I am!’”
“That’s still part of her normal, it’s still part of her routine to want to do that, and she’s calling for him and he’s not popping out and she doesn’t understand why.”
In addition to being a cornhole enthusiast and pipefitter, Peyton was a Star Wars fan, and loved Superman, something he drew from while carrying out the role of a father.
“Superman is what he wanted to be for her. He wanted to be her hero, and he already was, it wasn't a title that he had to earn,” stated Sloat.
'An amazing brother,' says sister Nancy Lowell-Cunningham
Nancy, 53, hopes that her brother is not just remembered by all for how he died. The siblings were very close, and the two spoke while Peyton was on his way to the bar on the fateful day.
“He was an amazing brother. I would like for his daughter ... If she wants to know about him five years from now, we can say, 'This is who your dad was,'” she said, breaking down.
Rachael Sloat's message for her daughter
"I want Elle to know that her father didn’t leave her on purpose. He was taken from her, she was robbed of him," said Sloat.
"Unnecessarily," added Nancy.
Sloat stated that the child who is "wise beyond her years" still calls out for her "dada."
"She still is doing the call, and then he’s not there. So I'm having to kind of do it for him."
A GoFundMe page has been created for the family.