I’m sure Richard “Tre” Winfrey III of Aurora didn’t set out to become such an inspirational figure in his hometown.

That fateful path was made by a bullet fired into the car he was driving on March 2, 2007.

It was a dark time in Aurora’s history, when even innocents like this 17-year-old athlete and honor student at East Aurora High School became victims of the violence that darkened the city’s streets and its reputation.

Tre did not die from the bullet of that still unknown shooter. But on Sept. 18, he passed away from complications after 18 years of surviving as a quadriplegic.

Tre was 36 years old – not a long lifetime for anyone, especially one with so much potential. But he accomplished remarkable things in the years he was given.

Still in rehab from a severed spinal cord that le

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