NIU student known as ‘big bear’ killed on 1st day of internship at Aurora plant

Dean Prokos’ family-owned restaurant became the safe haven for one of his delivery drivers in 2008 when the Northern Illinois University student fled a deadly shooting rampage inside his lecture hall and ran to the DeKalb fixture.

Eleven years later, Prokos and his employees at Tom and Jerry’s restaurant again found themselves coping with tragedy this weekend after Trevor Wehner, also a delivery driver and NIU student, was fatally shot on the first day of his human resource internship, along with four other employees, at the Henry Pratt manufacturing warehouse in Aurora.

“He’s one of my top employees,” Prokos said. “We called him our big bear. He had a heart of gold, and everybody loved him. He cared about his job. He cared about his friends.”

Wehner, a Sheridan native, was just three months away from graduation.

Read more at the Daily Herald.

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