--- description: One of the 14 people killed in Wednesday’s San Bernardino shooting massacre has been identified as Michael Wetzel, his church said. title: A San Bernardino Shooting Victim Had 6 Kids image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # A San Bernardino Shooting Victim Had 6 Kids  by [Melissa Chan](/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 3, 2015 8:55 PM CUT  by [Melissa Chan](/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 3, 2015 8:55 PM CUT One of the 14 people killed in [Wednesday’s San Bernardino shooting](http://time.com/4135144/san-bernardino-shooter-bombs-bullets/?xid=homepage "undefined") has been identified as Michael Wetzel, [his church said Thursday](http://www.churchofthewoods.org/wetzelfamily.html "undefined"). Wetzel was a married father of six, according to a fundraising page friends created to help his wife, Renee, and their young children. He was also a dedicated member of the Church of Woods in Lake Arrowhead, Calif., which [issued a statement](http://www.churchofthewoods.org/wetzelfamily.html "undefined") on its website Thursday confirming his death. “They are very overwhelmed,” Celia Behar, a family spokesperson told [KABC](http://abc7.com/news/father-of-6-killed-in-san-bernardino-mass-shooting-/1108336/ "undefined"). “There are six kids that have lost their father and Renee is a stay-at-home mom, so they’ve also lost all of their financial support, and the kids are just finding out today.” Wetzel’s wife learned the devastating news of his death about eight “grueling” hours after the shooting, according to [the YouCaring fundraising page ](https://www.youcaring.com/renee-wetzel-480644#.VmBqFfQfuzs.facebook "undefined")that Behar started. “Please pray. My husband was in a meeting and a shooter came in. There are multiple people dead/shot. I can’t get a hold of him,” Renee Wetzel wrote to friends, according to Behar. The fundraising page has already collected nearly $60,000. Fourteen people, including Wetzel, were killed in a [California couple’s shooting spree](http://time.com/4135144/san-bernardino-shooter-bombs-bullets/?xid=homepage "undefined") Wednesday at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino. Twenty-one other people were injured, police said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4135477/michael-wetzel-san-bernardino/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4135477/michael-wetzel-san-bernardino/"},"headline":"A San Bernardino Shooting Victim Had 6 Kids","datePublished":"2015-12-03T20:55:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T08:56:07.822Z","description":"A fundraising page for the family had already raised nearly $60,000","url":"https://time.com/4135477/michael-wetzel-san-bernardino/","keywords":["Crime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4135477/michael-wetzel-san-bernardino/","name":"A San Bernardino Shooting Victim Had 6 Kids"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How the San Bernardino Shooting and Manhunt Unfolded","description":"San Bernardino Timeline-v1","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/gHAnKSvX/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-12-03T20:40:42.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gHAnKSvX.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4135477/michael-wetzel-san-bernardino/","duration":"PT2M47S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4135477/michael-wetzel-san-bernardino/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```