A vigil will be held in Nashville to grieve the three children and three adults shot to death this week at a Christian elementary school.
The ceremony will commemorate the three nine-year-old students, the school's head, a substitute teacher and a custodian killed in Monday's shooting.
It will take place at a public park in the heart of the city, the Tennessee state capital, and will be attended by US First Lady Jill Biden.
Over the past two days, mourners have left flowers, balloons and stuffed teddy bears at the gate of the Covenant School, where the attack unfolded.
Six white crosses were placed nearby, each adorned with a blue heart, the name of one of the victims and a Bible verse: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."
The shooting, the latest of dozens carried out at US schools this year alone, has touched a particularly raw nerve, in part because three victims were so young and in part because it scorched Nashville's tight-knit Christian community.
"Many Tennesseans are feeling the exact same way: The emptiness, the lack of understanding, the desperate desire for answers, the desperate need for hope," said Tennessee Governor Bill Lee in a video posted on his Twitter feed.
The governor's wife Maria, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak and the head of the school Katherine Koonce previously taught together at another school, he said.
All three remained close friends for decades. Ms Peak and the governor's wife had planned to have dinner together on Monday, he said.
"I understand there is pain. I understand the desperation to have answers, to place blame, to argue about a solution that could prevent this horrible tragedy," he said. "This is not a time for hate or rage."
The three children killed were Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs, whose father is head pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church, which is affiliated with the school.
"We are heartbroken. She was such a gift," the pastor told local media.
In addition to Ms Koonce, 60, and Ms Peak, 61, custodian Mike Hill, 61, was killed in the attack.
The assailant, Audrey Elizabeth Hale, 28, went to the grade school armed with two assault-style weapons and a handgun, police said.
The guns were among seven firearms Hale had legally purchased in recent years from five Nashville-area stores, Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake told reporters yesterday.
The attack has added fuel to a long-running national debate over gun ownership rights and regulations.
Tennessee has some of the most relaxed gun laws in the nation.
The state does not require a permit to carry a firearm, regardless of whether it is concealed or openly carried.
Motive unclear
Authorities were working to understand what motivated the former Covenant student to attack the school, which serves about 200 students from preschool to sixth grade in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville.
In security camera footage, Hale is seen shooting through doors to enter the school before stalking the empty halls as emergency lights flash.
Hale, wearing a black military-style vest, camouflage pants and red baseball cap, moved through the building, opening fire on children and staff.
Officers were on the scene within about 15 minutes of the first emergency call.
Bodycam footage showed police moving through classrooms filled with small desks and paper craftwork.
Multiple gunshots are heard as officers close in on a sun-filled atrium, where the assailant was shot dead.
Hale "was under care, a doctor's care, for an emotional disorder", the chief told reporters during a news briefing, without elaborating.
Hale, who was believed to identify as transgender, according to Mr Drake, left behind a detailed map of the school showing entry points as well as what the chief described as a "manifesto" suggesting plans to carry out shootings at other locations.
Investigators believe the suspect harbored "some resentment for having to go to" Covenant as a child, Mr Drake said.
The chief declined to elaborate and did not say what role, if any, Hale's gender identity, educational background or other social or religious dynamics might have played.
Investigators "don't have a motive at this time," he said yesterday.
A former schoolmate, Averianna Patton, told CNN Hale sent an Instagram message the morning of the shooting.
"One day this will make more sense," Hale wrote. "I've left more than enough evidence behind. But something bad is about to happen."
Ms Patton said she called police to alert them at about the time the attack started.
Monday's violence marked the 90th school shooting – defined as any incident in which a gun is discharged on school property – in the United States this year, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, a website founded by researcher David Riedman.
Last year saw 303 such incidents, the highest of any year in the database, which goes back to 1970.
