In a grass field behind the biggest bank in Santa Fe, classmates and parents and teachers, and politicians prayed, joined hands, and sang two verses of Amazing Grace. And mourners reeling from yet another school shooting massacre embraced each other when the words and the verses, just weren’t big enough to explain the grief they all feel.
Moms like Tina Young attended the Friday night vigil with her daughter who graduated from Santa Fe High last year. “I have friends that went to the school. And I’ve only heard from like five of them,” said 2017 graduate Karyssa Bennett.
“We’re just going to take it day by day and cry it out and just love each other and be glad we have each other,” her mom, Tina Young said.
And at the back of the crowd of hundreds, Abel San Miguel, 15, recounted the horrors of his morning inside the art class where the gunman used a .38 caliber revolver and a shotgun to break through the door.
“There was a lot of blood a lot of glass,” he said. “Kyle and Chris, they were in the room with me,” he said of two of the 10 victims.
“He just started firing at the door. And the little window that was on the door.” San Miguel says he hid behind the door as the gunman broke in and trained the shotgun on his friends.
“When he went to shoot Kyle, he like yelled ‘surprise” and started firing. But that’s all he said," Miguel said.
That’s all he said. That’s all the survivors know. And now Santa Fe has become yet another grieving American town that wants yet another gunman to explain why.
“I really didn’t know him until all this happened,” San Miguel said. “I just can’t believe how wicked he is to do this to innocent people.”
In a social media post, Santa Fe ISD announced classes will not be held Monday or Tuesday of next week. The post ended with a request: “please continue to pray for our SFISD community as we grieve.”