TULSA, Okla. — The victim in a shooting outside a Tulsa Catholic church was honored with a mass on July 29 held by the Catholic diocese bishop and attended by the mayor and county district attorney.
Fifteen-year-old Alexander Puentes died after allegedly being shot in the abdomen by another 15-year-old, later identified by Tulsa police as Luis Hinch.
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Security for the event reportedly left just minutes before the shooting, at the scheduled completion of the community outreach event held outside the building housing St. Thomas More Catholic Church's sanctuary.
The Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma hosted the "Mass of Healing and Peace" with hundreds in attendance, including Mayor Monroe Nichols, Deputy Mayor Crystal Reyes, and Tulsa County DA Steve Kunzweiler. All three declined to speak with the media afterward, but Mayor Nichols spoke at the podium toward the end of the mass.
WATCH: Mayor, friends remember teen gunned down at Tulsa church event:
"I have a broken heart for this family," the mayor said. "But that broken heart comes with a level of determination that we do everything that we can to make sure that the names of the young people who are gone before us don't go in vain, and that our resolve is deepened with how we address it."
The reported homicide was the second deadly shooting at a community event involving underage teens in the city in less than 40 days.
"It's surreal. It feels like a fever dream," friend of Puentes, Josue Gaytan, said before the mass. "It's crazy to think that he's not gonna be here anymore, you know? I won't be able to see him at church anymore. I won't be able to make jokes with him anymore."
"No teenager should have a gun or have access to a gun," Juan Rodriguez, another friend of Puentes, told 2 News. "And no gun is gonna resolve any issue."
After the mass, Bishop David Konderla called for a public blessing at the scene of the shooting, which remains sectioned off.
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