Two shootings in 15 hours left 31 people dead.
The communities of both cities - 1,500 miles apart -- held candlelight services in tandem on Sunday night for deadly mass shootings. The names of lives lost from gun violence were read at a community vigil in Dayton, Ohio while people also mourned in El Paso, Texas.
The shootings were unrelated, but the sentiment was the same: shock, sorrow and sadness that it happened in their hometowns.
A total of 22 lives were lost in El Paso when a gunman fired at a shopping center in El Paso on Saturday. A 21-year-old man has been taken into custody in connection with that shooting.
“It’s a blow to the foundation that we stand on for our families and our kids,” said Gilbert Marmetleo.
In Dayton early Sunday morning, nine people were shot to death and another 27 injured. This was the second mass shooting in less than 24 hours.
On Sunday afternoon, Dayton Police confirmed a 24-year-old man was responsible. Authorities said he wore body armor and carried a rifle as he gunned down his victims in the city's historic Oregon neighborhood near the downtown area.
These are now two more cities impacted by gunmen. These communities join a growing list of American cities that have found themselves at the center of the tragedy. Although, each emergency is unique, the sentiments behind each tragedy becomes eerily familiar.
“These mass shootings are a reflection of who we are and who we have been. It's not good enough for us to say we're better than this because we haven’t been… but we could be,” said Dayton business owner Jason Harrison.
Two cities. Two mass shootings. One nation in distress.
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