Some 1,500 miles from Newtown, Connecticut, residents of Mansfield, Louisiana gathered to honor the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

With song, prayer and candlelight, the people of Newtown were far away, but no longer strangers. And the people of DeSoto Parish offered their thoughts and prayers to families of the victims.

Dozens of people, from as far away as Shreveport, gathered at Mansfield Elementary/Middle School to hold a candlelight prayer vigil. A group of pastors teamed up with the city of Mansfield and Mansfield Elementary Principal Debbie Fuller to hold the vigil at the school.

Pastor Donzel Hughes, of St. Elizabeth Baptist Church in Grand Cane, says Friday's tragic shooting could have happened anywhere.

"Those could have been our children that happened to, even in Mansfield, Shreveport, Bossier," Hughes said. "And I know we all pray for our children. And of course it wouldn't be bad if prayer went back into the schools to continue to look over and protect our children."