Hundreds gathered in Sacramento Sunday afternoon to mourn the deaths of 50 people killed in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida in the deadliest mass shooting in United States history.

Speeches from Mayor-elect Darrell Steinberg, City Council member Steve Hansen, Assemblymember Kevin McCarty and others took place in a break from thumping Latin music from a concert that Club Mango had planned for the day.

“Today we recoil in horror, in anger and in sadness to know that 50 innocent people were massacred at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida,” Steinberg said. “We decry prejudice and hatred. This kind of horrific event I think leads us to reflect in a number of ways. We have to be vigilant in protecting one another.”

The Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus singing “Ubi Caritas.” 

The shooting was committed by Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old born in New York. Mateen, who was killed in a shootout with law enforcement, called 911 shortly before the attack to declare his allegiance to the Islamic State. In addition to the 50 killed during the shooting, 53 more were left wounded.

The Sacramento State PRIDE Center released a statement in response on Sunday.

“The attack on Pulse Nightclub’s Latin-themed night, an LGBTQ People of Color space, has made our hearts heavy,” the PRIDE Center’s statement read. “Today we ask the Sac State community to acknowledge the pain and healing our LGBTQ members and allies will be experiencing in the coming weeks.”

Patrick Dorsey, president of Associated Students, Inc. at Sac State, was in Monterey for a seminar and unable to attend the rally, but he shared his dismay in a phone interview.

“This tragedy is devastating. As much as we try to be inclusive and accepting, especially at Sacramento State, where we try to promote an environment of inclusivity, we tend to forget it’s not like that for other campuses, across the nation and in other parts of the world.”

George Raya, a Sac State alumnus who fought to establish the Society for Homosexual Freedom at the university in 1970, said he was blown away by the events in Orlando.

“It’s mind blowing, and it really brings back the fact that, yes we’ve had some court victories, but there still is a lot of hate out there,” Raya said. “You forget about it. You think all is well, and then all of a sudden something like this happens.”

Andrew Michaud, director of graduate students at ASI, said he was deeply saddened by news of the shooting, but was glad that the local community put together a rally. Michaud moved to Sacramento from Kansas in 2014 after completing his bachelor’s.

“Seeing the amount of love that went into the event, as quickly as it was put together, just really made me feel amazing, and made me love Sacramento and the school even more,” Michaud said. “Because it was presented in such a loving way, I feel like it resonated really strongly with the LGBT community.”

Steinberg encouraged his supporters to take down his mayoral race signs and replace them with ones saying “Pride over Prejudice” in a symbol of solidarity.

“We need to be vigilant in saying we will never retreat,” Steinberg said. “We will never stop celebrating at Faces and Badlands and all the other places of community that represent a good time, and represent friendship and camaraderie. We are going to continue living our lives. That’s the strongest statement we can make.”

Additional reporting by Barbara Harvey.