Vigil honors Clackamas Town Center shooting victims
CLACKAMAS, Ore. – About 200 people gathered at Clackamas Town Center Friday night to remember the victims of Tuesday's shooting there.
The candlelight vigil was to honor the victims and also to help the community move forward. People who knew the victims, who were there themselves and even people who have no connection to it at all gathered at outside the mall.
They sang songs like "Amazing Grace" and observed a moment of silence. They came to remember 45-year-old Steve Forsyth and 54-year-old Cindy Ann Yuille. Both were killed. They also came to heal and to hope.
Those who were at the vigil expressed the sense of community, the sense of connection, and the wellspring of support they felt that bonded them together and strengthened them.
For many, the gathering showed there is still love and even honesty left in the world.
"We actually had a lady come up to our store today and hand us money and we're like, 'What's going on?' And she said I was in your store when it happened, and I ran out of the store with the merchandise and I want to come back today and pay for it," said Angel Hanson who has worked at the mall for 11 years.
So many people at Clackamas Town Center also spoke about the shooting in Connecticut on Friday. They said coming together on Friday night meant that much more to them in the face of even more tragedy.
Yesterday I learned that a dear friend who is a teacher at a local middle school conducted a youth orchestra with 68 kids, in the food court, and they finished and left about an hour before the shooting. I get chills thinking about that.
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Yesterday, we drove by the mall and didn't go in because the parking lot looked absolutely packed. That's encouraging. We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
Thank you for this well done story. The media takes a lots of heat for sensationalizing events like this and being insensative to those involved, but as someone who spent several hours at the mall on Friday I appreciated this story.
Too much violence going on in our own country. I wish for a good future as a country but its not looking so good. It seems these murderers want to be marters and go down with their name in the history books. But this is so twisted. If you want to kill yourself. Go get help or do it alone. Leave the innocent out of it. It is absolutely sickening what is happening
 @LostSoul This is not as new as people think. Every generation has its monsters and heroes. It is happening more now than it did in our grandparents' day because the population has radically multiplied, and there's more people to do more random things, and an ever-increasing number of ways to saturate ourselves thinking about them.
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We don't worry about train robberies so much anymore. That seems to have passed even though it's still possible to derail a train and take money from the victims. The sensationalism of terror is what perpetuates it.Nearly the entirety of America knows that preying upon the innocent is absolutely the pinnacle of cowardice, and we as a people come together to acknowledge and to mourn our victims. We continue to admire goodness. This will continue to happen from time to time, but, our way is still good. We're going to be alright.
@LostSoul    gee, no one has ever given that advice! i bet it works! and dont forget to mention the millions of refugees and 10's of 1000's of innocents we as a country have killed with the phony wars that cost trillions yet they argue over the fiscal cliff. you're a pawn...deal with it.
@the rover gee, I got a good idea for your unsympathetic ass. Go "F" yourself-troll!!
@LostSoul but dr cliche....i dont want to....why dont you?