› First lady Biden attends vigil Wednesday in Nashville,

NASHVILLE — Hundreds of people gathered Wednesday at a candlelight vigil in Nashville to honor and mourn the three children and three adults who were killed in a shooting at a Christian school this week.

The downtown ceremony for the victims of the shooting at The Covenant School was largely somber and silent and filled with young people. First lady Jill Biden and singer Sheryl Crow were among those attending, as were civic leaders including the mayor and police chief.

“Just two days ago was our city’s worst day,” Mayor John Cooper said. “I so wish we weren’t here, but we need to be here.”

Earlier in the day, Pope Francis sent condolences to the city and offered prayers to those affected.

Police have said a 28-year-old former student drove up to the school Monday morning, shot out the glass doors, entered and began firing indiscriminately.

The dead were identified as as students Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9 years old; Katherine Koonce, 60, the head of the school; substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61; and custodian Mike Hill, also 61.

Authorities have not yet determined the shooter’s motive but say the assailant did not target specific victims.

Another performer featured at the vigil, musician Margo Price, has been particularly vocal about Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s position on state gun laws. In response to the shooting, Price tweeted: “Our children are dying and being shot in school, but you’re more worried about drag queens than smart gun laws? You have blood on your hands.”

Crow has also pushed for stricter gun-control laws and released a tribute song to the 20 children and six adults who were killed in 2012 at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. She responded to a tweet from Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee in which Blackburn said she and her husband were “heartbroken” over the shooting and that she and her office stood “ready to assist.”

“If you are ready to assist,” Crow tweeted, “please pass sensible gun laws so that the children of Tennessee and America at large might attend school without risk of being gunned down.”

“Our hearts are just broken with the pain and sorrow of knowing that parents in our community had to identify the bodies of their children today who were murdered yesterday in classrooms with assault rifles — thinking about what that must have been like as a parent of a 9-year-old,” said Ketch Secor, another musician who was attending Wednesday’s vigil.