Brother of New Orleans attack victim Martin ‘Tiger’ Bech reveals last words shared between them
The brother of a victim of the New Orleans attack has paid a tearful tribute to his “best friend” and “role model” – and revealed what the pair last said to each other.
“The last thing we ever said to each other, he told me he loved me”, Jack Bech said of his brother Martin “Tiger” Bech, 27, as he spoke with Sky News’s US correspondent James Matthews.
“I told him I love him, he told me he loved me even more, hung up the phone – and that was the last words I ever spoke to him.”
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The pair spoke just hours before Tiger became one of the 14 people killed in the attack on Bourbon Street, where people celebrating the New Year were run down by a man driving a pick-up truck.
Tiger Bech (left) and Jack Bech (right). Pic: Jack Bech
Jack said he and his family will make sure “everyone knows” his brother’s name.
“He was my best friend, my role model,” Jack said. “[I] looked up to him. [He was] smart, inspired me to do everything I have done in this life. Inspired my whole family. He was loved by so many people. He always made time for the little guy. He was special.”
Jack Bech, brother of New Orleans attack victim Martin ‘Tiger’ Bech
Jack said his brother’s “legacy will live on forever”.
“My family are going to make sure that that happens, that everyone knows his name,” he said.
“Yesterday was the hardest day of my life and each day will be the hardest day of my life just living there knowing I can’t speak to him ever again.”
He told Sky News he watched the final moments of his brother’s life on a FaceTime call to an emergency room. Tiger was unconscious but still alive, time that Jack said was precious.
“He couldn’t respond to any of us, but I truly believe he could hear us, his eyes were closed.”
“God kept his heart beating for a reason, I believe so my family could say goodbye,” he said.
The Bech family with Jack Bech in American football gear in the centre with his brother Tiger in the white top on the right, standing in between his sister and mother. On the left of the picture are Jack and Tiger’s father and sister. Pic: Jack Bech
The time they spent together at Christmas was the best “we ever had as a family”, Jack said.
“He saw all his friends when he was home, he made time for everybody and he saw so many people he hadn’t seen in so long.”
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Jack said he believed that everything happens for a reason.
On the night before Tiger died, Jack said his brother “confessed his faith and his love in God”.
“That was the first time any of us had heard that in a long time, a decade, years and years,” he added.
Tiger “had such a great life”, Jack said. “He packed in 80 years into 27”.
Charlie Kirk has been posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump.
The USA’s highest civilian honour was received by the conservative activist’s widow, Erika, at the White House.
Mr Kirk, 31, was fatally shot on 10 September while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University.
He founded Turning Point USA and toured American university campuses, debating students about current affairs.
Erika Kirk at the White House. Pic: Reuters
Erika Kirk and Donald Trump. Pic: Reuters
Addressing those attending the ceremony in the White House rose garden, the US president said they were there to “honour and remember a fearless warrior for liberty” and a “beloved leader who galvanised the next generation”.
He said Mr Kirk’s name was being entered “forever into the eternal roster of true American heroes”.
Mr Trump described Charlie Kirk as an “American patriot of the deepest conviction, the finest quality and the highest calibre”.
He said his nation had been “robbed” of an “extraordinary champion”.
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Has Charlie Kirk become a MAGA ‘martyr’?
And Mr Trump said Mr Kirk was assassinated in the “prime of his life for boldly speaking the truth, for living his faith, and relentlessly fighting for a better and stronger America”.
The ceremony coincided with what would have been Mr Kirk’s 32nd birthday.
Mr Trump described Erika Kirk, now head of Turning Point USA, as someone who had “endured unspeakable hardship with unbelievable strength”.
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Charlie Kirk’s movement is growing in wake of his assassination
Charlie Kirk. File pic: AP
A 22-year-old man, Tyler Robinson, from the city of Washington in Utah has been charged with Mr Kirk’s murder. Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty.
At a memorial event held at a stadium in Arizona, Erika Kirk told an enormous crowd she forgave her husband’s killer.
“The answer to hate is not hate,” she said.
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