Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo: ‘A ray of sunshine every day'

Dancer who dreamed of becoming an actor

Luis Omar Ocasio Capo, 20, wanted to be a star.

Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20, was one of the youngest victims of the Pulse nightclub attack. He was a dancer and a barista for Starbucks while he was studying theater, according to his social media accounts.

A former teacher remembered Ocasio-Capo as "a ray of sunshine every day." While a co-worker wrote, "He lit up any area he worked in, especially Starbucks."

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Ocasio-Capo, known by friends and family as Omar, attended Valencia College. One of his former professors told News 6 that Omar dreamed of being an actor.

"He was one of the most amazing dancers," his sister, Belinette Ocasio-Capo, said. "He would always call me and say, 'I'm going to be the next Hollywood star.'"

"Now his name ended up being all around the world, like he wanted - just not this way," she said of her brother.

A few days after the attack, his grandmother made the difficult journey to Orlando to attend Omar's funeral. She was traveling alone, but soon realized every passenger on the flight was there to comfort her.

JetBlue employee Kelly Davis Karas and her co-worker decided to pass around a piece of paper for passengers to sign their good wishes. The two flight attendants did this as they took beverage orders, but halfway through realized they needed more paper because passengers were writing so much.

“We didn’t have just a sheet of paper covered in names, which is what I had envisioned. Instead we had page after page after page of long messages offering condolences, peace, love and support. There were even a couple of cash donations, and more than a few tears," Karas said.

With his grandmother’s permission, Karas asked for a moment of silence in memory of Ocasio-Capo. And then, every passenger on board stopped to offer their sympathy to the grieving grandmother.

“I am moved to tears yet again as I struggle to put our experience into words. In spite of a few hateful, broken human beings in this world who can all too easily legally get their hands on mass assault weapons - people ARE kind. People DO care,” she wrote.​

 


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