San Antonio donates lighted Christmas tree at El Paso airport to honor shooting victims

EL PASO, Texas-- A one-of-a-kind lighted Christmas tree made its way from San Anonio to El Paso on Tuesday afternoon.

The tree is a way of honoring the victims of the Aug. 3 mass shooting.

“It’s our way of saying that we feel for El Paso we share in the tragedy of what happened," said Mark Metzger, the owner or Decor IQ, the San Antonio-based company that donated the tree.

The lighted Christmas tree took three months to prepare. Once the lighted panels were complete, the company packed them up in their truck and traveled to El Paso on Tuesday afternoon to assemble the tree.

It took Decor IQ workers five hours to complete the 30-foot high tree which sits outside of the El Paso International Airport to greet visitors and locals.

The tree has 22 light panels, each panel pointing up to the sky in honor of those 22-victims who tragically died during the El Paso Walmart shooting.

“We just want the people from El Paso to know that we’re with them and other cities across the state are with them too. We feel for what they have gone through and we hope this helps them heal," said Metzger.

“I think that it’s really special that their doing this for the community and for the passing of the victims," said Noha Basouny a New York native who was visiting El Paso. "I think that it’s very important for something this time of the year to represent them and to keep us remembering the victims.”

The Christmas tree will be on display outside of the El Paso International Airport until January 7, 2020.