The family's neighbors in the San Juan suburb remembered Ortiz as a quiet, dedicated son who decorated his parents' one-story concrete house each Christmas and played in a salsa band with his father on weekends.
"He was an extraordinary son, what any father would have wanted," said Ortiz's father, also named Juan Ramon Ortiz.
Marilys Alvarez, 22, heard Ortiz's mother scream from the house next door when she learned of her son's death. Alvarez said she had wanted to study in the United States, but was now reconsidering.
"Here the violence is bad, but you don't see that," she said. "It's really sad. You can't go anywhere now."
Ross Abdallah Alameddine
James Christopher Bishop
Brian Bluhm
Ryan Clark
Austin Cloyd
Jocelyne Couture-Nowak
Daniel Perez Cueva
Kevin Granata
Mathew Gregory Gwaltney
Caitlin Hammaren
Jeremy Herbstritt
Rachael Elizabeth Hill
Emily Jane Hilscher
Jarrett Lane
Matthew Joseph La Porte
Henry Lee
Liviu Librescu
G.V. Loganathan
Lauren McCain
Partahi Lumbantoruan
Daniel O'Neil
Juan Ramon Ortiz
Minal Panchal
Erin Peterson
Michael Pohle
Julia Pryde
Mary Karen Read
Reema Samaha
Waleed Mohamed Shaalan
Leslie Sherman
Maxine Turner
Nicole White
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
































Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."




