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A large crowd filled United Christian Parish in Reston on Thursday night, holding candles and singing in memory of people injured or killed during encounters with federal law enforcement officers.

Photographs of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both killed in Minneapolis, stood at the front of the church as community and religious leaders urged attendees to speak out against the violence.

Pretti, an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, was shot several times days earlier while filming Border Patrol officers carrying out an immigration enforcement operation. Good was killed earlier in January while using her vehicle to block a road.

Their deaths have fueled large demonstrations in Minneapolis and elsewhere across the country.

Virginia Rep. James Walkinshaw, who organized the vigil, said the gathering was not about politics. He described it as people coming together to recognize lives lost needlessly and call for an end to the violence.

“It’s so wrong,” attendee Howard Berman said, pointing to events in Minneapolis, Portland, Maine, California and other communities.

Pastor Vernon Walter told the crowd he was tired of preventable funerals, grieving mothers who receive no answers and authorities who take lives before offering explanations.

Mary Jackson said she had been expressing support for Minnesotans on social media. She hoped the vigil would send a message to White House officials about the treatment of American citizens and longtime residents who have helped build the country.

The Rev. Linda Calkins said many people in the room likely knew someone afraid to leave home because they feared arrest or separation from their family.

Walkinshaw called for independent investigations into the deaths of Good and Pretti. He said the Department of Homeland Security should not investigate itself and argued that, without an impartial FBI inquiry, state and local agencies should conduct the investigations.