Visitors to Newtown pay tribute to school shooting victims

The second weekend after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School saw large numbers of  visitors streaming into Newtown, Connecticut.

Traffic was at a standstill much of the time on Sunday along the road leading to the Sandy Hook neighborhood.

Visitors stopped at a memorial on the side of the road to pay homage to the victims and their families.

Some were in town visiting family for Christmas, but many others made a special trip to Newtown.  Like Henrietta Bascomb from Prattville, Alabama, who was on her way to Vermont and said she had to stop by to support the town.

“I’m a mom of two sons and eight grandchildren and so my heart breaks for them, so. Evil came to the town, that’s for sure and took the lives of precious children,” said Bascomb.

Another family drove from Jersey City, New Jersey.

“This has touched our hearts very deeply, because I believe that the United States is a great country and unfortunately things like this happen. But it brings us together.”

The added influx of out-of-town patrons meant brisk business for Newtown’s Blue Colony diner.

Penny Fahlman was in the area visiting family for Christmas.

“The contrast between coming to visit our family and the sadness that we feel for all these families is so enormous. This tragedy is so profound and we are feeling so sad for everyone,” said Fahlman.

“What brought me here was, really a combination of being a mother and being a psychotherapist and working with trauma regularly with adults,” Deborah Saunders from New York state told Reuters.

“And so to see this happening, where it’s happening to both children and adults, I just felt I had to get here.”

The Sandy Hook massacre on December 14 was the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

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