More than 1,000 people expected to attend vigil following Molson Coors mass shooting

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Local leaders are hoping to create a space where the community can unite following the mass shooting at Molson Coors.

Organizers are expecting upwards of a thousand people to fill the courtyard in front of City Hall for Sunday's event, Milwaukee Strong: a Vigil to Unite and Heal.

"Once we saw what happened here in our hometown in Milwaukee we knew we had to do something," said Darryl Morin, president of Forward Latino. "So tomorrow we have over 38 organizations from across the state coming together."

They want to create a place where people can start to heal four days after a gunman opened fire at Molson Coors, shooting and killing five coworkers and himself.

"It's always nice when people get together to celebrate good things, but it's just as important to get together in a time of need when people are asking the question: Why? Why did this happen? How could it happen?" Morin said.

City, state and national leaders are scheduled to attend the vigil Sunday. They include Mayor Tom Barrett, Police Chief Alfonso Morales, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Congresswoman Gwen Moore. More than a dozen faith leaders will also attend, including Pardeep Kaleka, executive director of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee.

"I know that nothing can be the way that it was before. We have six people who are lost, and their families are affected," Kaleka said.

Kaleka lost his father in the Sikh Temple shooting in Oak Creek in 2012.

He said if there is a message he has for the families of the Molson Coors victims it would be just to be there for one another and to seek professional help for their mental health.

"There's going to be days where they feel up and they feel like they're over this. And there's going to be days where they feel like, 'No, it feels like yesterday.' Time is going to go fast and then slow. It's complicated," Kaleka said.

He now works to address systemic issues affecting the city but said this event is only the beginning of the work that needs to be done.

"If we don't learn from what happened... we've lost all those lives, and what do we have to show for it?" he said.

The vigil is scheduled to go from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Sunday in the courtyard in front of City Hall.