Vigil held for California school shooting victims

Name: WORLD
Price range: $

Students at a candlelight vigil in Central Park in Santa Clarita, Calif., on Sunday Associated Press/Photo by Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times

Vigil held for California school shooting victims

Detectives are still searching for a motive explaining why Nathaniel Berhow shot his classmates on his 16th birthday on Thursday at Saugus High School near Los Angeles. Gracie Anne Muehlberger, age 15, and ROTC cadet Dominic Blackwell, 14, died in the shooting. Doctors treated Berhow for a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but he died on Friday.

“We are broken,” Blackwell’s aunt Angie Davidson said. “Please remember the two precious lives that we lost.”

How is the community responding? Thousands of people held a candlelight vigil on Sunday at a park near the school in Santa Clarita, Calif. Three other students were injured in the shooting. A 14-year-old girl went home from the hospital on Friday, and a 14-year-old boy was treated and released Thursday. A 15-year-old girl remained hospitalized in good condition. The high school will stay closed until Dec. 2.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift on the investigation into the shooting.

Rachel Lynn Aldrich

Rachel is a former assistant editor for WORLD Digital. She is a Patrick Henry College and World Journalism Institute graduate. Rachel resides with her husband in Wheaton, Ill.