Christina Grimmie’s life was remembered during an emotional vigil Monday night in her hometown of Evesham, N.J. Hundreds of people gathered at the Marlton Memorial Sports Complex where her brother, Marcus Grimmie, talked about his “baby sister” in front of their family, friends and fans.
“Christina was awesome,” Grimmie said. “She loved this town, she loved this state, she loved singing, she loved the Lord and she loved me. She was my baby sister.”
The 22-year-old season six finalist of “The Voice” was shot to death by a stalker while signing autographs in Orlando last Friday. Her brother tackled the shooter, but the shooter then shot and killed himself.
Christina Grimmie was on Adam Levine’s team and her brother thanked the judge for his offer to pay for his sister’s funeral. “Adam Levine paid for Christina’s funeral,” he said. “Selena [Gomez] is singing a song and crying [during her concert]… We are blessed to. She’s in a better place.”
A few days earlier, Marcus Grimmie wrote on Facebook that Levine had called his mom to make sure that he could cover the costs of flying her body from Orlando to New Jersey. “Adam Levine personally called my mother and said he will pay for the funeral and her plane flight, and I was blown away. Now a friend just told me to look at the GoFundMe page and I see it is at 100k. Words cannot express … literally I have no words.”
Less than 24 hours later and a few miles away, a gunman walked into Pulse nightclub in Orlando and opened fire, killing 49 people and wounding more than 50.