UF students and faculty lit candles Friday morning with solemn faces as nine names were read.
Lucero Alcaraz. Quinn Cooper. Kim Dietz. Lucas Eibel. Jason Johnson. Lawrence Levine. Sarena Moore. Treven Anspach. Rebecka Carnes.
UF Student Government held a vigil for the victims of the Oct. 1 shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. Umpqua student Christopher Harper-Mercer, 26, killed the nine students and injured nine others.
"No matter how near or far this incident happened, it could’ve been us," said Courtnie Moodie, the SG community involvement and service cabinet director.
The vigil, held on Turlington Plaza, also honored the victim of another shooting at Northern Arizona University that occurred Friday morning, hours before the vigil.
A moment of silence was held for families of the victims and the communities affected by the shootings. Participants held candles to remember the victims.
Joselin Padron-Rasines, UF Student Body president, said these events were tragic, and related them to last November’s Florida State University library shooting.
"Last year at FSU, we learned how all too easily these things can happen close to home," she said.
Kevin Doan, UF Student Body vice president, said students and the community shouldn’t be numb to campus shootings.
"These communities don’t deserve to go through this," he said. "No one should."
UF President Kent Fuchs lit a white candle for the victims.
Fuchs said it was important to remember fellow students, and he thought it was important for him to be there.
"You can’t control what people will do," he said. "You do pray that nothing will happen here."
Alexa Ide, a UF applied physiology and kinesiology junior, said the vigil made her think about how fragile and short life can be.
"It’s sad to think about," the 20-year-old said.
Mandy Devane, a UF health education and behavior junior, said though the program was short, she liked that SG lit candles for the victims.
Devane, 20, said she felt awful for the students at Umpqua.
"They went to school that day thinking it would be a normal day," she said.
Contact Caitlin Ostroff at costroff@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @ceostroff
Students hold candles on Turlington Plaza at a vigil on Oct. 9, 2015, for the victims of the Oct. 1 shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. Roo Poage, right, a 19-year-old UF architecture sophomore, said she was terrified when she first heard about the shooting because her close friend lives near the college.
