The lives of Fletcher and Harper were cut short when a 23-year-old former student opened fire through the church’s stained-glass windows. The children were just steps from their classrooms when the attack began. Outside the school, Fletcher’s father, Jesse Merkel, delivered a raw and powerful tribute: “Yesterday, a coward decided to take our eight-year-old son, Fletcher, away from us. Because of their actions, we will never be allowed to hold him, talk to him, play with him, and watch him grow into the wonderful young man he was on the path to becoming.” He described a boy happiest with a fishing pole or in the kitchen, bright and joyful, deeply loved. He asked the public to “remember Fletcher for the person he was and not the act that ended his