The following statement can be attributed to Kyle Bragg, President of 32BJ SEIU:

We are saddened to hear the terrible news that the shooting by a white supremacist at the Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California on Sunday injured an SEIU Local 521 member, killed her six-year-old son and injured her mother, also a retired SEIU member. Our hearts break for our union sisters and for the families of the three people killed, 12 injured and countless people traumatized in this unacceptable shooting. We are only beginning to understand the terrible loss of life from this act of racist violence.

Incidents like this are a stark reminder that our members live in targeted communities, our kids go to schools where active shootings drills are now mandatory and responding to violence in our country is a union issue.

The statements made by the accused shooter before he opened fire on the congregation point to a terrible sickness that threatens to consume this nation from the inside out. When some of those in our communities are not safe even in their own houses of worship, we must ask ourselves if we are doing enough in the fight for racial justice and equality.

We will continue call on our leaders to come together to rebuild a society where Americans can worship, go to the grocery store, and walk down the street without fearing they’ll be the next victims of a hate crime.

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With 175,000 members, 32BJ SEIU is the largest building service workers union in the country.