Hundreds gather for vigil honoring Santa Fe HS shooting victims

SANTA FE, Texas - Hundreds came together in Santa Fe Friday night for a vigil to pray for those killed and those injured in the Santa Fe High School shooting that left at least 10 people dead.

Governor Greg Abbott and Senator Ted Cruz joined the crowd. Even injured survivors released from the hospital with their wounds still bandaged were there to find hope in the face of tragedy.

At least one of the victims killed in the attack was a substitute teacher. Her family says she was a grandmother in her 60s who was married for nearly 40 years. Another victim was a Pakistani foreign exchange student. A school resource officer was among the injured and was shot in the arm.

The vast majority of victims were students. Classes in the Santa Fe Independent School District are canceled until at least Tuesday as families grieve.

Walking on the same highway students used to run away from Santa Fe High School, hundreds of community members came out to get closer together.

“It's a really small close-knit community,” said Carolyn O’Leary who works at the school. “Everyone really does know everyone.”

The people who came out had all different sorts of connections to the 10 wounded and 10 killed. But nearly everyone shared a sense of disbelief.

“How could one of the children of our area go off and do something like that?” O’Leary questioned.

While the vigil in Santa Fe was an opportunity for the community to heal, many were surprised to see Breanna Quintanilla there as she still heals form her injuries. The junior high school student was hit just above her knee while running out of her first-period class.

“Next thing you know, there were kids jumping from window to window, over the walls, breaking doors trying to get out escaping,” she recalled.

Escaping on an adrenaline rush, Quintanilla was able to get to safety. The rush of surviving and going through the tragedy still hasn't quite set in for her and so many others in Santa Fe.

“It hasn't even completed functioned through my head that I have gotten shot and that I was in a school shooting,” she said.

“They say wait for it to be normal, but it will never be normal," O'Leary said. "There may be a new normal, but it will never be the same.”