Texas School Shooting Victims Honored At Sunday Church Service
SANTA FE, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - A large crowd attended a church service in Santa Fe Sunday dedicated to the victims of the mass shooting that took place at the city's high school Friday.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was in attendance. He was surrounded by graduating Santa Fe High School seniors like Hunter Bloomfield.
The message at Arcadia First Baptist Church was supposed to be directed to graduating seniors, but instead the pastor spoke to a grieving community.
Hunter said he was thankful to be here with his family because just two days ago he feared for his life. He said he had to leave school after learning students were being shot.
"We were all just walking on Highway 6," said Hunter. "Just walking, my immediate thought was 'where's my sister?'"
His sister had already been picked up by his mom.
"It was horrible," said Hunter's Mother Sharon Bloomfield. "My daughter called me, she heard the shots and went running. She was crying and terrified so I went without shoes on to pick her up and took several carloads of kids trying to get them out of there."
Hunter and his friend were safe, but 10 people didn't make it and 13 others were injured.
"It's hard on everyone," said Hunter.
The pastor addressed a question on everyone's mind Sunday afternoon. "Why do bad things happen to good people?"
"We live in a fallen, sinful world and therefore no matter who we are, no matter how good we are or how bad we are we're going to have problems," said Arcadia First Baptist Church Interim Pastor Jerl Watkins.
"We're never promised to not suffer," said Sharon. "That's just a part of life."
"So what do we do when tribulation and tragedy strikes?" Watkins asked the congregation. "Folks we need to pray for our children's and our schools every day."
Parishioners said they believe that's what will help their hurting community.
Santa Fe High School graduation will take place June 1. Seniors attending Sunday's service said they're working to plan some sort of tribute to the victims of the shooting.