It was an evening for the Lowellville community to come together after a student pulled a gun on themself and fired shots in front of classmates on Thursday morning.

It was a moment of trauma that the entire community continues to reel from. On Friday evening, a village vigil welcomed hundreds as a place of comfort during this horrific time in their community.

"We're not used to anything like this happening in our community," said Patricia Lucente, Lowellville resident. "But, we won't separate after this."

The village community including students of all ages, parents and parishioners gathered at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church, beginning the healing process.

"That's all we can do is have the prayer to lift us up and allow God to lift us up. There is no words to describe how the community feels," said Reverend Stephen Zeigler with Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church.

"Lowellville is such a small community but I feel now more than ever just the amount of people that are being able to come together," said Evan Alfano, Junior at Lowellville Local Schools. "There's so much support that surrounds us. It's amazing."

Reverend Stephen Zeigler framed his service around the message of healing, turning to faith and relying on one another to gain strength and peace.

"I hope that they came and they knew they could come to have a safe haven here and allow themselves to allow God to lift them up," Rev. Zeigler added. 

"We don't want it to happen anywhere else," Lucente said. "There is a lot of people who care before something bad happens. They have to always know they can go to anybody. Just don't hold it in because it turns into poison in your system."

"It's a surreal feeling," said Samantha Moore, Senior at Lowellville Local Schools. "It doesn't really sink in until you think about what just happened. It's great knowing you have support during a hard time like this. This is something unpredictable and something you never would have thought could happen."

Brave students from Lowellville Local Schools who were in the building when the shooting occurred told 21 News they feel the support from the entire Mahoning Valley.

"Just hanging out with your friends just means so much more after a tragedy and an incident like that happens," Alfano said. 

Alfano added their tight-knit village will strengthen even more after this tragedy that forever changed their community.

"It's just so hard with it being the end of the year and everything that just happened," Alfano said. "It's hard to continue doing all the fun events we have planned knowing what just happened to this little boy and to this family."

Lowellville's end of year activities including prom were rescheduled in the wake of this tragedy.