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A Houston vigil honoring the victims of the mass shooting in El Paso opened with a gospel song emphasizing humanity’s interconnectedness. After the final refrain, “I need you to survive,” Congresswoman Sheila Jackson took the podium.
“We should be attentive” to white supremacist propaganda, Jackson said. “We need each other to survive.”
“Enough is enough,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner. “Inaction will not stop the killing. At some point we need to say, ‘Has America reached a tipping point where action will take place?'”
It was the first of two Houston vigils honoring the victims of the mass shooting in El Paso and Dayton planned for Sunday evening. Turner said the Montrose bridges would be lit up in orange Sunday evening to promote gun violence awareness.
“We are truly saddened and angered by this act of hate,” said Cesar Espinosa, the director of Fiel, the immigration rights nonprofit hosting the vigil at 4 p.m. at 1919 Smith St. “We must change this dynamic immediately before others also get inspired to commit such heinous acts.”
The shootings in El Paso and Dayton killed 29 people and injured dozens more. Shortly before the gunman in El Paso opened fire in a Walmart, he posted an anti-immigrant manifesto decrying a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.”