Firefighters salute as a hearse passes for the funeral procession to the burial of 7-year-old Daniel Gerard Barden on Wednesday in Newtown, Conn.(Photo: David Goldman, AP)
NEWTOWN, Conn. -- The magnitude of the Sandy Hook Elementary School
massacre continued to bear down on this small town Wednesday as eight
families held services for victims.
Across Newtown and surrounding
areas, makeshift memorials grew and police lights, dark hearses, and
long funeral processions -- now a familiar sight -passed through town
for a third straight day. Police also continued to dig into what led to
the tragedy.
Near Sandy Hook Elementary, Gene Rosen, 69, recalled
the victims and the time he spent with six children who he believes
witnessed the murder of their teacher, Victoria Soto.
"Two
boys started crying furiously and saying 'We can't go back to school,
we can't go back to school -- our teacher is gone,' " said Rosen who
brought the children inside his home after finding them on his front
lawn shortly Friday morning. "I was so overwhelmed I could not take in
what they were saying."
Adam Lanza, 20, carried out a shooting
attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 20 students and six
adults dead. He also killed his mother earlier in the day.
Wednesday,
mourners attended funerals and burials for Soto, 27, and students
Charlotte Bacon, 6, Caroline Previdi, 6, and Daniel Barden, 7. The
families of students Benjamin Wheeler, Catherine Hubbard, Allison Wyatt,
all 6, and school principal Dawn Hochsprung, 47, also held calling
hours.
USA Today