'We have tools to stop this' Tears and calls for stricter gun laws as city mourns

Tears and calls for stricter gun laws as city mourns

- Rachel Leingang

The line wrapped around the brick building, people flowing into a high school gym already nearly full of a community in mourning.

The vigil at Academy of Holy Angels, two miles from the site where two schoolchildren were killed by a gunman during morning mass at Annunciation church, drew people of all faiths from around the Minneapolis metro area.

A couple of miles down the road, many hundreds gathered in a park for another vigil that called for stricter gun control and an end to the senseless violence that has become a fixture of American life.

Across the Twin Cities metro area, church leaders gathered their parishes in prayer and communion, joining together to find solace and make sense of the tragedy.

Robin Westman, 23, opened fire at the Annunciation Catholic school on Wednesday morning, spraying bullets through stained-glass windows into the pews during morning mass in the school's first week of classes.