A makeshift memorial with crosses for the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre stands outside a home in Newtown, Conn., Saturday, Dec. 14, 2013, the one-year anniversary of the shootings.NEWTOWN, Conn. – Bells tolled 26 times to honor the children and educators killed one year ago in a shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School as local churches held memorial services and the country marked the anniversary with events including a White House moment of silence.
With snow falling and homes decorated with Christmas lights, Newtown looked every bit the classic New England town, with a coffee shop and general store doing steady business. But reminders of the private grief were everywhere. “God bless the families,” read a sign posted at one house in the green and white colors of the Sandy Hook school, and a church posted that it was “open for prayer.”
Ryan Knaggs, a chef who lives in Newtown, said that as the bells tolled he thought of two young victims who played soccer with his 7-year-old daughter.
“The echo of the bells, knowing some of the children personally, you feel the exactitude with each bell … the exactitude of the loss and the grief,” Knaggs said.
The bells rang 26 times at St. Rose of Lima church in Newtown beginning at 9:30 a.m. — the moment the gunman shot his way into the school on Dec. 14, 2012 — and names of the victims were read over a loudspeaker. Connecticut’s governor had asked for bells to ring across Connecticut and directed that flags be lowered to half-staff.