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| Tom Doyle, back left, standing with family and co-workers, wipes his face as the funeral procession for 6-year-old James Mattioli, who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, approaches the St. John's Cemetery Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012, in Darien, Conn. Center are his wife Debbie and daughter Emily, 10. Adam Lanza opened fire at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Friday, killing 26 people, including 20 children. |
NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) -- Newtown returned its students to their classrooms Tuesday for the first time since last week's massacre and faced the agonizing task of laying others to rest, as this grieving town wrestled with the same issues gripping the country: violence, gun control and finding a way forward.
Funerals were held for two more of
the tiny fallen, a 6-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl. A total of 26
people were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School in one of the
worst mass shootings in U.S history. The gunman also killed his mother
in her home before committing suicide.
The
resumption of classes at all Newtown's schools except Sandy Hook brought
a return of familiar routines, something students seemed to welcome as
they arrived aboard buses festooned with large green-and-white ribbons -
the colors of the stricken elementary school.
"We're
going to be able to comfort each other and try and help each other get
through this, because that's the only way we're going to do it," said
17-year-old P.J. Hickey, a senior at Newtown High School. "Nobody can do
this alone."
Still, he noted: "There's going to be no joy in school. It really doesn't feel like Christmas anymore."
At
St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Newtown, back-to-back funerals were
held for first-graders James Mattioli and Jessica Rekos, the third and
fourth so far and the first of eight to be held in the coming days at
the church. Memorial services and wakes were also held for some of the
adult victims.
As mourners gathered outside, a
motorcade led by police motorcycles arrived for the funeral of little
James, who especially loved recess and math and who was described by his
family as a "numbers guy" who couldn't wait until he was old enough to
order a foot-long Subway sandwich.
Traffic in
front of the church slowed to a crawl as police directed vehicles into
the parking lot. A school bus carrying elementary students got stuck in
traffic, and the children, pressing their faces into the windows, sadly
watched as the mourners assembled.
Inside the church, James' mother stood and remembered him.
"It
was very somber, it was very sad, it was very moving," said Clare
Savarese, who taught the boy in preschool and recalled him as "a lovely
little boy, a sweet little angel."
The service
had not concluded when mourners began arriving for the funeral of
Jessica, who loved horses and was counting the years until she turned
10, when her family had promised her a horse of her own. For Christmas,
she had asked Santa for new cowgirl boots and hat.
"We
are devastated, and our hearts are with the other families who are
grieving as we are," her parents, Rich and Krista Rekos, said in a
statement.
At a wake for 27-year-old
first-grade teacher Victoria Soto, hundreds of mourners, many wearing
green-and-white ribbons, stood in a line that wrapped around a funeral
home in nearby Stratford.
"Big smile, great
eyes, just a wonderful person," Lauren Ostrofsky said of Soto, who was
killed as she tried to shield her students from the gunman. "If anyone
could be an example of what a person should be today, it's her."
Tensions
in the shattered community ran high as the grief of parents and
townspeople collided with the crush of media reporting on the shootings
and the funerals.
Police walked children to
parents waiting in cars to protect them from the cameras. Many parents
yelled at reporters to leave their children and the town alone.
At
Newtown High School, students in sweat shirts and jackets, many wearing
headphones, had mixed reactions. Some waved at or snapped photos of the
assembled media horde, while others appeared visibly shaken.
Students
said they didn't get much work done Tuesday and spent much of the day
talking about the terrible events of last Friday, when 20-year-old Adam
Lanza, clad all in black, broke into Sandy Hook Elementary and opened
fire on students and staff.
"It's definitely
better than just sitting at home watching the news," said sophomore Tate
Schwab. "It really hasn't sunk in yet. It feels to me like it hasn't
happened."
As for concerns about safety, some students were defiant.
"This is where I feel the most at home," Hickey said. "I feel safer here than anywhere else in the world."
Still, some parents were apprehensive.
Priscilla
and Randy Bock, arriving with their 15-year-old special needs son,
James, expressed misgivings. "I was not sure we wanted him going,"
Priscilla Bock said. "I'm a mom. I'm anxious."
"Is
there ever a right day? I mean, you just do it, you know, just get them
back to school," said Peter Muckell as he took 8-year-old daughter
Shannon, a third-grader, to Hawley Elementary.
At
one Newtown school, students found some comfort from Ronan, an
Australian shepherd therapy dog from Good Dog Foundation in New York.
Owner
Lucian Lipinsky took the dog to a fifth-grade science and math class
where students were having difficulty coping with the tragedy. Most
started smiling immediately.
Lipinsky told the students they could whisper their secrets into Ronan's ear.
"It's
pretty amazing how a lot of kids will just go whisper in his ear and
tell them their secret, and, of course, he doesn't tell anyone,"
Lipinsky said. "He's a very good dog."
Authorities
say the horrific events of Friday began when Lanza shot his mother,
Nancy, at their home, then took her car and some of her guns to the
nearby school, where he broke in and opened fire, killing 20 children
and six adults before shooting himself.
A
Connecticut official said the mother, a gun enthusiast who practiced at
shooting ranges, was found dead in her pajamas in bed, shot four times
in the head with a .22-caliber rifle.
Investigators have found no letters or diaries that could explain the attack, even as more fragments of Lanza's life emerged.
As
a teenager, Lanza was so painfully shy that he would not speak or look
at anyone when he came in for a haircut about every six weeks, always
accompanied by his mother, said stylists in the Newtown hair salon Lanza
frequented.
Cutting Adam Lanza's hair "was a
very long half an hour. It was a very uncomfortable situation," stylist
Diane Harty said, adding that she never heard his voice.
Another
stylist, Jessica Phillips, said Nancy Lanza would give her son
directions about what to do and where to go. He would move only "when
his mother told him to," said a third stylist, Bob Skuba.
Meanwhile, the tragedy continued to reverberate around America.
Lanza
is believed to have used a Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle, a civilian
version of the military's M-16. It is similar to the weapon used in a
recent shopping mall shooting in Oregon and other deadly attacks around
the U.S.
Private equity firm Cerberus Capital
Management announced Tuesday it plans to sell its stake in Freedom
Group, maker of the Bushmaster rifle, following the school shootings.
Cerberus
said in a statement that it was deeply saddened by Friday's events and
will hire a financial adviser to help with the process of selling its
Freedom Group interests.
In Pittsburgh, Dick's
Sporting Goods said it is suspending sales of modern rifles nationwide
because of the shooting. The company also said it's removing all guns
from display at its store closest to Newtown.
At the same time, the outlines of a national debate on gun control began to take shape.
A
former co-chairman of the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus, Rep. Mike
Thompson, D-Calif., and 10-term House Republican Jack Kingston, a
Georgia lawmaker elected with strong National Rifle Association backing,
were the latest to join the call to consider gun control as part of a
comprehensive, anti-violence effort next year.
"Put guns on the table. Also put video games on the table. Put mental health on the table," Kingston said.
But
he added that nothing should be done immediately, saying, "There is a
time for mourning and a time to sort it out. I look forward to sorting
it out and getting past the grief stage."
White
House spokesman Jay Carney said President Barack Obama was "actively
supportive" of a plan by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to introduce
legislation to reinstate an assault weapons ban. While Obama has long
supported a ban, he did little to get it passed during his first term.
Meanwhile,
the National Rifle Association, silent since the shootings, said in a
statement that it was "prepared to offer meaningful contributions to
help make sure this never happens again." It gave no indication what
that might entail.
