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STORY: At the vigil, Daryl Crouch, executive director of the Christian aid group Everyone's Wilson, said many local residents were taking comfort in their faith as they fought bewilderment and a sense of helplessness in the face of "darkness beyond our comprehension."

Sixty-year-old Trecia Dillingham, who attended the vigil, said she blamed the tragedy on declining reverence for the value of life.

"So many young people are confused about the value of life, and I think that's what it boils down to," Dillingham said.

"I think life is not valued in so many ways, and so people resort to things like this because they don't value other people's life and they don't even value their own life," she added.

Authorities said a heavily armed 28-year-old - Aubrey Hale - had carried out the massacre at the private Christian school with 3 guns, before being killed by police.

The motive was not immediately known, but the suspect had drawn detailed maps of the school, including entry points for the building, and left behind a "manifesto" and other writings that investigators were examining, police said.