Mayor: Our Hearts Ache For You

Family members and friends of victims and city and state officials gathered together Sunday to look for answers and begin grieving a shooting rampage that left several dead in Santa Monica.

"Santa Monica, our hearts have been broken," said Assemblyman Richard Bloom, who lives in Santa Monica, to a group of about 100 people at St. Anne's Catholic Church at a prayer service. "How do we make sense of the senseless? Comprehend the incomprehensible?"

The church is where Carlos and Marcela Franco, who were killed in the shooting, and another victim, who has not been named, were members.

"Today, at this moment, we cannot know why," Bloom said. "Therefore it is today that we must be close to one another."

He said he believes Santa Monicans will endure.

"On this I have clarity. Our city, our people will rise again," Bloom said. "Our community of Santa Monica will endure. It will find a way to rise from this moment. We will find our hearts and our strength."

As a woman translated his words in Spanish, she choked up at times, and family members of victims put arms around each other.

Santa Monica Mayor Pam O'Connor also spoke, calling the city resilient in the face of the violence of the June 7 shooting.

"For those who lost loved ones, our hearts ache for you," O'Connor said. "Whether you are a family member, a friend or an acquaintance, you are connected to people in Santa Monica."

Liz Cruz, a leader in the Pico neighborhood of Santa Monica who spoke during the service, said she felt the need to put a service together.

"It's important that we gather as a community and support them at this difficult time," Cruz said.

A vigil will be held tonight at 6 p.m. in front of the library at Santa Monica College.