A shooting resulted in more than 50 deaths and hundreds of injuries at a music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada on Sunday night. The death toll marks the worst mass shooting in the nation's history.
A vigil offering a "a time of prayer and lament in response to the massacre" was held at 1 p.m. in Numen Lumen Pavilion on Monday afternoon.
Across campus on Monday morning, students reacted to the tragedy. Alex Gruber, a senior, attended a Jason Aldean concert at Walnut Creek Amphitheatre in Raleigh earlier this year. Aldean, a country music singer, was performing onstage when the shooting began, targeting the crowd in attendance.
"It’s weird to think, what if this happened in Walnut Creek Amphitheatre in North Carolina where I was at the time," said Gruber. "This applies to all of us, this is something that transcends age and background. It’s something that we all can be affected by. I just hope that everyone can heal properly."
Junior Jennifer Holmes also reflected on Sunday's shooting. Her sister was in Paris during the 2015 terrorist attacks which killed over 100 people, and she recalled being unable to get in touch with her sister during those events.
"I think I’m always a person who wants to believe in the best in people," said Holmes. "But also nowadays can you really trust anyone, I just don’t understand people that want to bring harm to others, no matter what your outlook on life. Everyone’s human, but there’s a lot of screwed up people."