the local paper there is the "cullman times."nd a few days ago the story that led their print edition was an obituary. antiques and auctioneering. businessman ray demonia remembered for community service. it's their lead story. and there's a reason it was at the top of the paper. he was clearly a beloved local figure. for decades he'd been dealing antiques and hosting auctions in cullman, alabama. many of them for charity. the paper printed a great old photo of him hosting an auction in his younger days and included an excerpt from a profile the "cullman times" had done about him a decade ago. it said, "his showmanship makes for a fun day, watching him encourage, cajole, and entice his audience is a thing of beauty. he knows his customers. he plays to them. he elicits moans and bursts of laughter at his antics." ray demonia lived his whole life in cullman, alabama. but he did not die there. he had a cardiac emergency that he suffered in cullman on august 23rd. but he ended up dying nine days later and 200 miles away from home in

cullman, alabama was recently the site of a giant donald trump rally. this was last month.00 people attended. which would make it the largest political event in alabama history if true. do we believe it's true? i don't know. it was a big event. two days after that event ray demonia went to the cullman hospital with his cardiac emergency and it did take calls to 43 different hospitals to find him that cardiac icu bed. and to be clear, it's not like we can say that giant trump event caused mr. demonia's death. but a place where tens of thousands of people show up and at that rally booed vaccines, that's the kind of place where the local hospital is probably going to be filled up with mostly unvaccinated covid patients. and whatever the reason that the hospital is full, if the hospital's full people who need those hospital beds are not going to get them in a timely way. and for some people that's going to be the end of their life. alabama is one of the least vaccinated states in the country. the only states with a lower vaccination rates than alabama are west virginia, wyoming

happy friday on cullman week. that's >> all right, ken, we're certainly not the 10 o'clock tonight.of course we're going to talk about the story affecting the entire nation tomorrow marking. >> 20 years since one of the darkest days in this nation's history. we're going to take a look at the ceremony taking place here in the bay area. and at ground 0. and after a violent weekend, walnut creek. police are stepping up patrols downtown. why neighbors say? >> it's an overreaction. those stories and more coming up on kron 4 news at 10.