BENTON, Ky. (AP) – The 15-year-old boy accused of gunning down classmates at a Kentucky high school has been ordered held on murder and assault charges. Meanwhile, the shaken community where the unspeakable occurred strained to cope with the devastation.
The 15-year-old boy – who is accused of fatally gunning down two classmates and wounding 18 others at western Kentucky’s Marshall County High School on Tuesday – was ordered held Thursday on preliminary charges of murder and assault.
After nightfall, nearly 300 people rallied at a candlelit vigil for the victims. Many wore T-shirts that read: “Marshall Strong.” Teens in the crowd wept and hugged, and one girl sang “Amazing Grace.”
People attend a vigil for the victims of a fatal shooting at Marshall County High School on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018, at Mike Miller County Park in Benton, Ky. The 15-year-old accused of the fatal shooting on Tuesday, which left over a dozen injured, was ordered held Thursday on preliminary charges of murder and assault. (AP Photo/Robert Ray)
Said the organizer of the vigil, Misti Drew: “It always happens somewhere else, you know, but this week it was our community.”
People attend a vigil for the victims of a fatal shooting at Marshall County High School on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018, at Mike Miller County Park in Benton, Ky. The 15-year-old accused of the fatal shooting on Tuesday, which left over a dozen injured, was ordered held Thursday on preliminary charges of murder and assault. (AP Photo/Robert Ray)
People attend a vigil for the victims of a fatal shooting at Marshall County High School on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018, at Mike Miller County Park in Benton, Ky. The 15-year-old accused of the fatal shooting on Tuesday, which left over a dozen injured, was ordered held Thursday on preliminary charges of murder and assault. (AP Photo/Robert Ray)
People attend a vigil for the victims of a fatal shooting at Marshall County High School on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018, at Mike Miller County Park in Benton, Ky. The 15-year-old accused of the fatal shooting on Tuesday, which left over a dozen injured, was ordered held Thursday on preliminary charges of murder and assault. (AP Photo/Robert Ray)
People attend a vigil for the victims of a fatal shooting at Marshall County High School on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018, at Mike Miller County Park in Benton, Ky. The 15-year-old accused of the fatal shooting on Tuesday, which left over a dozen injured, was ordered held Thursday on preliminary charges of murder and assault. (AP Photo/Robert Ray)
Kentucky Wesleyan College students Lucas Butler, right, and Jack Forte, second from right, along with other students and staff attend a prayer vigil on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018, on campus in Owensboro, Ky., for the victims of Marshall County High School. (Alan Warren/The Messenger-Inquirer via AP)
Lauren Bengtzen, of Gilbertsville, Ky., paints the Marshall County High School logo on a window at a Taco John’s restaurant in Benton, Ky., Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018. Bengtzen, who graduated from Marshall County High School last spring, said she came in early for her shift at the restaurant to paint the window after the fatal school shooting Tuesday. (Ryan Hermens/The Paducah Sun via AP)
Lauren Bengtzen, of Gilbertsville, Ky., paints the Marshall County High School logo on a window at a Taco John’s restaurant in Benton, Ky., Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018. Bengtzen, who graduated from Marshall County High School last spring, said she came in early for her shift at the restaurant to paint the window after the fatal school shooting Tuesday. (Ryan Hermens/The Paducah Sun via AP)
Jason Darnall, assistant county attorney for Marshall County, left, makes a statement to the media following a court hearing of the suspected gunman in Tuesday’s shooting at Marshall County High School at the Marshall County Judicial Facility in Benton, Ky., Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018. Darnall said he can’t comment on what happens inside juvenile court, where the teenager’s identity and details of the crime remain cloaked in secrecy. But he reiterated that the state wants to try the teenager as an adult. (Ryan Hermens/The Paducah Sun via AP)
A flag in Draffenville, Ky., less than a mile from Marshall County High School where a 15-year-old student opened fire on fellow students, flies at half-staff at dawn on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018. (Ryan Hermens/The Paducah Sun via AP)
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