SAN DIEGO, Calif. (KGTV) - A group of San Diegans gathered at Balboa Park to honor the 22 lives lost in the El Paso shooting.
A group of San Diegans organized the event held at the park next to Centro Cultural de la Raza, hoping to unite the city and advocate change.
"It hurts, it's going to take a while, we're not going to forget," Pat Palma said. She has friends and family in Texas and feared for their safety when the shots rang out August 3rd.
"Tried to locate everybody, it was hard, I finally did. Sunday I was just numb," she said.
"That person did not go to Walmart asking if you're a Democrat or a Republican or a Trump supporter or not. He went there to shoot brown people," Organizer Jessica Yanez Perez said.
The victims range in age from 82-2-years-old.
At the vigil, they held a prayer asking for support for the families experiencing grief, lit candles for those lost and had speakers who preached involvement to create change.
"This is something that touched close to home for a lot of us," Yanez Perez said El Paso and San Diego are the same city. She explained both cities are made up of the same people, "people of Mexican ethnicity, of immigrants, of people who cross the border to work."
The organizers hope the crowd touched by the senseless killing can show unity, through more than the color of their skin, "what happens here, what can we do here, to prevent something like that and I think the biggest thing is coming together as a community reminding each other we are one we are San Diego."
