SANTA FE, Texas — For Mike Phillips, it’s the place he grew up and raised his family. For Alex Castillo, it’s where she was on the drill team and cheered on the high school football team. For Chelsey Lummus, it’s the Cinderella-blue ball gown she wore to prom.

This is the small town that residents spoke of almost nostalgically Friday, as everything that Santa Fe meant to them seemed to slip into the past tense after a student opened fire in the local high school and stopped the lives of 10 people — eight students and two teachers, according to a letter sent to parents by the school district.

“Santa Fe is neon lights for baseball and football games. It’s a community that everyone knows everyone,” said Lummus, 24, who graduated from Santa Fe High School in 2012.

“Santa Fe has always wanted to be put on the map. We wanted to be put on the map for our sports and academics, and we’re put on the news right now for a kid that killed people in our community.”

Amy Nichols, left, comforts Santa Fe High School junior Paige Keenan during a prayer vigil following a shooting at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, on May 18, 2018. David J. Phillip / AP

On Friday, residents here had risen early to get children to school. Eighth-graders at the middle school were looking forward to their class trip to Schlitterbahn, the water amusement park in Galveston that is an oasis on the increasingly hot days of late May in Texas. The weekend would be a time to get yard work done and finish chores and celebrate a grandmother's 90th birthday.

But a few hours into the morning, Rose Strickland, who lives near the high school, suddenly saw teenagers pulling themselves over a neighbor's red-stained wood fence and running down her street.

She heard the bam-bam of what she thought must be a law enforcement response to something terrible. Her heart raced as she feared for her granddaughter, a student at the high school. Her granddaughter ended up safe, but had a friend who was injured.

“It’s all a mess. You try to get it all to soak in,” Strickland said outside her home, which beckons with a tall wood sign that says “Welcome.”

Santa Fe, a town of 13,000 south of Houston, huddles around Texas State Highway, a main road lined with churches, chain stores and farm equipment rentals. Leafy trees shade wide-set houses near the high school, perpetuating the “country” feeling that locals say brought them or kept them here.

Hours after the shooting, hundreds of residents and some from nearby towns gathered in the parking lot and grassy area behind the Texas First Bank for a vigil. The circle was so deep and wide that many couldn’t get a view or had trouble hearing.

But they could still share hugs and tears with neighbors and hold hands in prayer.