DALLAS (1080 KRLD) - Residents of McKinney, Frisco, Plano and Allen came together Monday evening for a vigil honoring the victims of last weekend's shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio.
"A young man from our neighboring community walked into a Wal-Mart in El Paso and opened fire," McKinney Mayor George Fuller told the crowd. "Today, the death toll has risen to 22 people with 24 others who are injured. Yesterday morning, a young man walked into an entertainment district in Dayton, Ohio, opened fire and killed nine people, injuring 27 others."
Fuller said he did not want the vigil to become political. He told the crowd there would be debate about gun control moving forward.
"For the next 20 minutes, debate is not our purpose," Fuller said. "Lives were ended in an instant. Families were ripped apart. Mothers and fathers lost children, children lost mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters and friends were taken from each other."
The police and fire chiefs in McKinney started passing the flame for a candlelight vigil. A bell was rung 31 times for each person killed in El Paso and Dayton.
"It just feels so wonderful to have people here," says one woman who had moved to Collin County from El Paso. She says her mother still lives in El Paso. "When you're so far away from home, and you don't have that support system, especially for me and my mom. To know she's over there alone, it's hard."