Newtown Funerals End For School Shooting Victims
Newton, Conn., held the final funerals for victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting this weekend after a week of vigils, memorials and tears by members of the community.
Five funerals were held on Friday, Dec. 21, for Rachel D'Avino, a behavioral therapist who had recently begun working at the school; Mary Sherlach, the school psychologist; 6-year-old Olivia Engel; 6-year-old Dylan Hockley; and 7-year-old Grace McDonnell.
A spokesperson for the Connecticut Funeral Directors Association told CBS News the last funerals it knows of are taking place on Saturday, although some burials are private.
On Friday, some websites went offline, flag were flown half staff and church bells rang 26 times across the nation to honor the victims that died exactly one week ago. Twenty-six times the bells tolled Friday in Newtown for the victims and some rang a 27th bell, for Lanza's mother. Some states declared a moment of silence on Dec. 21 for 9:30 a.m., the exact hour that the shooting massacre began on Dec. 14.
Twenty children and six adults died when Adam Lanza, 20, a Connecticut native, broke into the elementary school and starting his shooting rampage before killing himself. He killed his mother, Nancy, earlier that morning before making his way to the school.
Lanza's motive is still unclear to investigators, however, authorities uncovered computer hard drives belonging to the teen at the home he shared with his mother and are in the process of analyzing them. Investigators confirmed last week that Lanza planned the shooting and rigged his rifle to give him the maximum amount of firepower possible. He employed a technique known as "jungle taping," which explains how he managed to kill 26 victims at the school in matter of minutes, Wayne Carver, the Connecticut medical examiner, said.
The Sandy Hook school will be closed for months while the crime scene is used as part of the investigation.
