First lady Jill Biden attended Wednesday night’s candlelight vigil in Nashville, Tennessee, to honor and mourn the six victims killed in the Covenant School shooting.
“Honored that FLOTUS will attend this evening’s vigil as Nashville mourns and remembers the lives tragically taken from us,” Nashville Mayor John Cooper tweeted earlier in the day.
The vigil at Public Square Park, which began at 5:30 p.m. local time, came two days after the massacre that left three adults and three 9-year-old children dead. The assailant, identified as former Covenant School student Audrey Hale, was fatally shot by police.
The ceremony, titled “Nashville Remembers,” was opened by remarks from Cooper.
“When words can’t carry the weight of what’s in our heart, we must reach out to others for help,” Cooper said. “Let us work together to create a better future — a future that does not repeat this tragedy.”
The vigil included musical performances by Sheryl Crow and Nashville-based musicians Margo Price and Ketch Secor.
The crowd also heard from police Chief John Drake, who said, “Our police officers have cried and are crying with the world.”
Metro Council Member Russ Pulley stressed the importance of the community leaning on one another for support during this time, adding, “Vulnerability is difficult, but a necessary step toward healing.”
Biden did not speak during the event, but tweeted Monday she was “truly without words” following another school shooting in the U.S.
“Our children deserve better,” she wrote. “We stand — all of us — with Nashville.”
Also offering condolences to the Nashville victims Wednesday was Pope Francis, who sent a telegram to the Bishop of Nashville. The pope wrote that he joins “the entire community in mourning the children and adults who died and commends them to the loving embrace of the Lord Jesus.”
Investigators are working to determine a motive for the shooting.
“We have a manifesto, we have some writings that we’re going over that pertain to this date, the actual incident,” Drake said Monday. “We have a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place.”
----------
