Vigil held in downtown LA to honor 11 Pittsburgh synagogue victims

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A vigil was held at a synagogue in downtown Los Angeles, where Mayor Eric Garcetti and council members honored the 11 victims killed at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

Los Angeles city council members, religious leaders and rabbis all came together at a podium that featured photos of the victims. A rabbi opened the vigil by sharing prayers to end anti-Semitism and discrimination.

Councilman Bob Blumenfield, who organized the vigil, discussed other racially and religiously motivated shootings, including the one in Kentucky where a black couple was killed in a grocery store.

"The person who attacked (in Pittsburgh) said 'all Jews must die' before he started shooting. We come together today not just to mourn the tragic murder of the 11 souls whose faces you see here before us, but also to recognize the pernicious pattern of hate that culminated in Saturday's shooting," he said.

Garcetti also spoke, saying he would not be partisan but that it would not stop him from being political. He also called for discrimination and conspiracy theories to end.