The victim of a shooting at a combat stress clinic in Camp Liberty had sought counseling there partly because Mother’s Day made him feel the recent loss of his mother, a commander said.

Spc. Jacob Barton, 20, “simply desired to talk with someone trained to listen,” said Lt. Col. Matthew Zajac, 46th Engineer Combat Battalion.

Zajac spoke during a crowded memorial service for Barton held Thursday at the Camp Liberty chapel.

Officials say Barton was also dealing with the stresses of a new career and his first deployment.

Barton, a construction equipment mechanic, was one of five people killed on May 4 when Sgt. John M. Russell allegedly opened fire at the center.

Barton was “very innocent. He was just a boy — still a kid,” Sgt. Alexis Hernandez, Barton’s squad leader with the 277th Engineer Company, said during the service.

“We finally got him to start standing up for himself and he was really starting to develop,” he was quoted as saying in a news release. “Wish he could’ve experienced so much more in life.”

His friends said his small-town upbringing in Lenox, Mo., and his kind heart made him seem a bit sheltered and innocent.

He “often found himself being tricked by his peers because of his trusting nature and very limited exposure to the corruption of the outside world,” Capt. Gordon Robbins, commander of the company said during his eulogy. “It was his purity and trusting nature that allowed him to take the pranks without ever holding a grudge against his buddies.”

Barton with stationed with the 955th Engineer Company, based in Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., but deployed with the 277th.

Spc. Daniel Castillo, a close friend of Barton, was quoted as saying, “He was just a simple guy, didn’t complain about this or that, and always tried his best. It’s just as simple as that.”