By WBFO News
Buffalo, NY – A memorial Mass was held at a Clarence church Friday morning for a security contractor who was kidnapped and killed in Iraq.
Hundreds of mourners gathered at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church to remember Jonathon Cote, an Army veteran who was working for a private security firm when his convoy was ambushed in November 2006. His body was found and identified last month.
The Rev. Randy Rozelle, pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Clarence, told mourners to "focus on the time you had with Jonathon, not the time you didn't."
"He was a gift from God. He was a gift to our country," Rozelle said.
Hundreds of people attended the wakes held for Cote over the past two days.