Dozens of San Diegans, including local animal rights advocacy group La Jolla Friends of the Seals, gathered at the Children’s Pool in La Jolla Saturday to celebrate the official start of seal pupping season.
The rope barrier is designed to provide a buffer for the safety and welfare of both the seals and spectators, particularly during the seals’ breeding season.
Currently, all but approximately three feet of the Children’s Pool is roped off from December to May, when the seals give birth. The rope will remain up through May 15, 2013.
The local beach is a designated seal rookery. It's unique in its proximity to the viewing area, where people can watch the seals as they rest, sunbathe, molt and give birth.
The National Marine Fisheries Service recommends spectators remain at least 50 feet from the nearest beached seal, but the Children’s Pool is an exception due to the small size of the beach.
The next designated seal rookery open to the public is near Santa Barbara, Calif.
One of the many things standing between the Chargers and their playoff hopes is Panthers’ quarterback Cam Newton.
Newton has made headlines across the NFL since he joined the League last year, including winning the prestigious AP Offensive Rookie of the Year award.
He, like many of the younger quarterbacks coming out of college, is mobile.
Last year, his Superman touchdown dance seemed fitting. This year, teams have found a way to game plan for the dynamic quarterback and all of a sudden he has come crashing back into the realm of mortals.
The Panthers are sitting at 4-9. Those nine losses have come when teams figure out a way to stop Newton. Simple as that.
The problem has become, how do teams stop him?
Newton has rushed for 640 yards on the season and scored seven touchdowns, including one for 72 yards in week 14 against the Falcons. And, just to add insult to injury: he flipped into the end zone before his Superman dance came out.
It may be that added flair for the theatrics that caused Chargers’ cornerback Antoine Cason to smirk a bit at the thought of getting a chance at him.
“I’m out there just like he is,” Cason said. “So if he comes around he’s going to get tackled.”
Whether it’s Newton, Roethlisberger, or any other quarterback, both Cason and Quentin Jammer, who plays across from him, say there’s a moment when the shift happens. The shift from a designed route to a scrambled play and that’s what they have to pick up on.
Against the Steelers, Jammer said that scramble meant the receivers were running deep. With Newton, that usually means he’s running.
“We definitely do have to contain him,” Cason said. “Running, that’s what he does really well.”
Rookie defensive end Kendell Reyes has made a habit of getting in quarterbacks’ faces this season. He has two sacks, 11 tackles and has pressured the quarterback numerous times.
Newton is a type of quarterback the rookie is more familiar with from his college days. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t a threat.
“He has great poise,” Reyes said. “He has good control over the offense. He is a dynamic player and we definitely have to bring out ‘A’ game this weekend.”
Defensive coordinator John Pagano has done an excellent job all season game planning for each individual team and quarterback. This week is no exception.
“We’re really focusing in on the fact that he’s such a playmaker on his feet,” Pagano said. “He’s really playing at a high level. It’s not only going to be a big challenge for us getting him on the ground, but really being gap-sound and making sure he doesn’t sneak out of the pocket.”
An emotional Newtown School Superintendent Janet Robinson talked with NBC Connecticut about the impact the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary has had on her community.
NBC 7's Tony Shin speaks to local parents about their fears and hesitations following the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn.
Most of the 20 children killed in the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history were first-graders, the state's chief medical examiner said. All had died of multiple gunshots wounds, and the seven he personally examined had been hit with between three and 11 bullets a piece.
"I’ve been at this for a third of the century," Dr. H. Wayne Carver said, "and ... this is probably the worst that I have seen or the worst that I know of any of my colleagues having seen.”
The medical examiners' office provided photos of the victims to families, rather than having families come to identify the bodies in person. "It's easier on the families when you do that," Carver said.
Eighteen females and seven males were killed in the attack. Sixteen of the children were 6 years old, while four were 7.
20 Children:
Charlotte Bacon, 6
Daniel Barden, 7
Olivia Engel, 6
Josephine Gay, 7
Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 6
Dylan Hockley, 6
Madeleine F. Hsu, 6
Catherine V. Hubbard, 6
Chase Kowalski, 7
Jesse Lewis, 6
James Mattioli, 6
Grace McDonnell, 7
Emilie Parker, 6
Jack Pinto, 6
Noah Pozner, 6
Caroline Previdi, 6
Jessica Rekos, 6
Avielle Richman, 6
Benjamin Wheeler, 6
Allison N. Wyatt, 6
Six adults
Rachel Davino, 29
Dawn Hochsprung, 47, principal
Anne Marie Murphy, 52, special education teacher
Lauren Rousseau, 30, teacher
Mary Sherlach, 56, school psychologist
Victoria Soto, 27, first grade teacher
A Camp Pendleton-based Marine was killed in Afghanistan Friday, the Department of Defense announced Saturday.
The DoD said Sgt. Michael J. Guillory, 28, died while conducting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
Guillory -- originally of Pearl River, La. – was assigned to 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion at Camp Pendleton.
A general advisory has been issued for the coastal waters of San Diego County due to urban runoff from the recent rain, the Department of Environmental Health announced Saturday.
According to the Department, swimmers, surfers and others who might use the ocean are warned that levels of bacteria can rise significantly in ocean and bay waters, particularly near storm drains, creeks, rivers and lagoon outlets that discharge urban runoff.
This runoff could contain large amounts of bacteria from sources such as animal waste, soil and decomposing vegetation.
To prevent contact with the runoff, the Department says activities like swimming, surfing and diving should be avoided in all coastal waters for 72 hours following the rain.
This includes all local beaches, Mission Bay and San Diego Bay.
Additionally, the County of San Diego Department of Environmental Health has expanded the water contact closure area at the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge shoreline north to include the Imperial Beach shoreline.
The Imperial Beach water contact closure includes north to Carnation Avenue, including Camp Surf.
Due to the season’s rainfall, runoff contaminated by sewage in the Tijuana River has been entering the Tijuana Estuary. The Department believes northward moving ocean currents could contaminate ocean water in Imperial Beach, prompting the water contact closure.
Signs warning of the sewage contaminated water will be displayed until field tests indicate the ocean water is safe for recreational use.
For updates on beach closure information, call the 24-hour hotline at (619) 338-2073.
For the latest rain and weather updates, click here.
The aunt of the gunman who unleashed the Connecticut school shooting said she can't understand why her nephew would kill his mother along with 20 children and seven adults in the small town of Newtown, Conn.
"Why these kids? Why these innocent little kids," said 57-year-old Marsha Lanza, while talking to reporters outside her Illinois home Saturday. "That just still baffles me."
Her nephew, Adam, is the 20-year-old man identified as the shooter of a deadly rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday. Adam Lanza's mother, Nancy Lanza, was found dead at her Newtown home.
Marsha Lanza, of Crystal Lake, had not seen Adam since he was 3 years old. But she told NBC Chicago her husband visited him in June. She was closer with his mother, Nancy and corresponded with her regularly.
“I lost it,” she said about turning the radio on in the car so her son could hear the news. “Because at this point, what I was hearing, was that Nancy was not only gone, but P.J., we called him P.J. his name was Peter, was also gone. And that’s just…we loved them.”
She was Nancy's sister-in-law by marriage. Their husbands, Michael and Peter, are brothers. Though Nancy divorced Peter, Marsha still stayed in touch with her.
Marsha described Nancy as a good mother and kind-hearted.
"She gave more than people will ever know," she said.
Marsha sent Nancy a Facebook message Friday morning, before she found out about the shooting, and never heard back. She said there was nothing in their correspondence to indicate anything was amiss.
"She never revealed anything that was critical," Marsha said, adding that Nancy would have told her if something was wrong.
As for insight about her nephew, Marsha said he was a bright boy, who was very quiet and interested in computers. She said Nancy had talked with her about home schooling Adam.
"I know she had issues with school," Marsha said of Nancy's frustration with the school her son was attending. "She eventually wound up home schooling him, because she battled with the school district, in what capacity, I'm not 100 percent certain. If it was behavior or learning disabilities, I really don't know. But he was a very, very bright boy. He was smart."
When asked about whether Adam suffered from Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, Marsha said there had been "chatter about it, but it was never confirmed." She would not answer yes or no to the question.
Marsha also had knowledge of Nancy's guns.
"I think the only reason Nancy may have had them [guns], and for the sake of many more of us in this country, is for self-defense and no other reason," she said. "They were not a violent family."
She added that Peter and Nancy would have sought help for Adam if they suspected any kind of problem.
Her husband Michael, who is in North Carolina, is said to be devastated over the news. He was the last person in their family to see Adam. Lanza said her husband did not notice anything unusual during his visit.
The passenger of a delivery truck involved in a fatal collision in La Mesa was killed after being ejected from the vehicle and falling from a freeway overpass, CHP officials said.
The fatal crash happened around 7:45 a.m. Saturday morning.
According to officers, a tortilla delivery truck occupied by a male driver and passenger was traveling on westbound Interstate 8 and attempting to transition onto southbound State Route 125 when the driver lost control of the vehicle.
Officials said the 32-year-old driver was traveling at an unsafe rate of speed, especially given the wet, rainy conditions.
The truck slammed into a raised concrete wall along the shoulder on the roadway. The impact, officials said, was enough to propel the truck across two lanes, causing it to then collide with another raised concrete wall on the other side.
Officials said the impact then fully-ejected the passenger, who was thrown through the windshield, falling from the freeway overpass onto southbound SR-125 below, where he came to rest.
Investigators do not believe the passenger was wearing his seat belt at the time of the crash.
He suffered fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, officials confirmed.
The driver sustained minor injuries and was transported to a local hospital. Investigators said the driver was wearing his seat belt.
The deceased passenger’s name was not immediately released. He was 32 years old as well, officials said. The Medical Examiner’s office is working to determine the man’s identity.
Some southbound SR-125 lanes along with the connector overpass were temporarily closed following the deadly collision.
Robbie Parker, whose 6-year-old daughter Emilie was among those killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, remembers his child as a loving, creative person who used her talents to touch the lives of everyone she met.
Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner H. Wayne Carver II, M.D. speaks to reporters during a news conference, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012 in Sandy Hook village of Newtown, Conn. The victims of the shooting were shot multiple times by semiautomatic rifle, the medical examiner said Saturday, and he called the injuries "devastating" and the worst he and colleagues had ever seen. Police began releasing the identities of the dead. All of the 20 children killed were 6 or 7 years old. Carver, said he examined seven of the children killed, and two had been shot at close range. When asked how many bullets were fired, he said, "I'm lucky if I can tell you how many I found." (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
A group of 12 suspected drug traffickers pleaded not guilty in court Friday of charges including transportation and possession for sale of methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and the DEA announced.
The suspects – both men and women – are part of an even larger group of suspected drug cartel traffickers that includes more than two dozen people.
The charges are part of a two-year investigation into a Mexican drug cartel, In a related operation this week, officials seized more than 1,000 pounds of meth, 200 pounds of cocaine and 28 pounds of heroin, the DA’s office said.
The 12 suspects that appeared in court Friday are also facing charges of conspiracy and child endangerment.
Investigators said the defendants worked for a Mexican drug cartel known as the Knights Templar, which mainly focuses on smuggling and trafficking meth across the U.S.-Mexico border.
“This is a bunch of thugs -- this is a bunch of greedy thugs making a buck on the backs of people who are mired in the misery of drug use and drug addiction," said DEA Special Agent-in-Charge Stephen Tomaski.
According to the DA, 16 suspects were arrested in the drug bust operation this week, but another 12 remain at large.
The names of the suspects charged in court were not immediately available.
The shooter who rampaged through Sandy Hook Elementary School killed his victims with a rifle, authorities said Saturday, repeatly wounding kindergartners, first-graders and faculty mulitple times and leaving no chance for life.
Painting a grim scene, Connecticut;'s chief medical examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver said this is probably the "worst that I have seen" in his nearly 30 years as a medical examiner. He performed seven of the autopsies himself, and said all victims he examined had 3-11 bullet wounds.
Asked whether the victims suffered, Carver said, “Not for very long.”
As the names of the 12 girls, eight boys and six adult women were made public, tender portraits of the tiny children began to emerge, as did tales of heroism by committed educators who tried to protect their charges.
But the reasons behind Adam Lanza's rampage were even less clear, as authorities said he had no obvious recent tie to the school.
His father spoke for the first time about the shooting, which also left Lanza's mother dead in her Newtown home.
"Our hearts go out to the families and friends who lost loved ones and to all those who were injured," wrote Peter Lanza, the father of gunman Adam Lanza. It was the first public statement made by a close family member of Lanza since his shooting rampage devastated the quiet New England town. Adam Lanza was found dead at the scene.
"We are in a state of disbelief and trying to find whatever answers we can," the statement said. "We too are asking why."
Meanwhile, the White House announced that President Obama will travel to Newtown Sunday to meet with victims' families, thank first responders and to speak at an interfaith vigil at 7 p.m. ET.
The update came hours after authorities said they had uncovered “very good evidence” that might help explain gunman Adam Lanza’s motive, which still remained very much a mystery.
With the theory that Lanza's mother had been a teacher at the school discounted by officials, those who had known him as a young, awkward teen-ager could think of nothing that would have predicted such inexplicable rage.
“We’ve been doing everything we need to do to peel back the onion, layer by layer, and get more information,” state police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance said Saturday.
Court records showed that Lanza's parents had divorced in 2008 after 17 years of marriage, according to The New York Times, which added that Peter Lanza had moved out of the family's home.
Vance declined to elaborate on the evidence that investigators have uncovered. He said that the shooter had “forced his way” into the Newtown school.
Gov. Dannel Malloy addressed the state about the tragedy on Saturday.
"Those educators, and those innocent little boys and girls were taken from their families far too soon. Let us all hope and pray those children are now in a place where that innocence will forever be protected," Malloy said.
All the victims' bodies were removed from from the school overnight and the families identified them through photos, the medical examiner said on Saturday.
Families had only seen pictures of their children's facial features. “It’s easier on the families when you do that,” Carver said.
One of those victims is school principal Dawn Hochsprung, 47. She was married and had five children of her own.
School psychologist Mary Sherlach was also killed. Sherlach is survived by her husband of 31 years, Bill, and her 25- and 28-year-old daughters.
The release of the names was a dreaded but anxiously awaited moment as the town -- and the nation -- struggles to accept such an unimaginable crime.
Hundreds of mourners gathered in Newtown —a town of 28,000 people — Friday night to remember the students and teachers lost in the tragedy. So many people had shown up for a vigil at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church that dozens, unable to get in, watched the service through open windows and doorways.
“I think about these children … and I know we have 20 new saints, 20 new angels,” Monsignor Robert Weiss told the standing-room-only crowd. “But that doesn’t take away the pain. It doesn’t take away the hurt. But it does bring us closer together.”
Earlier in the morning, 20-year-old Adam Lanza (pictured below) had stormed into Sandy Hook Elementary School and opened fire. Newtown Police Lt. George Sinko said on NBC's "Today" show it appeared Lanza shot his way into the school by shattering glass by the front door.
By the time his shooting rampage had ended, 20 small children and six adults had been killed. He, too, was found dead at the scene. A woman believed to be his mother, Nancy Lanza, was also found shot dead in a Newtown home. Despite earlier reports, it did not appear she was a staff member at Sandy Hook Elementary. Newtown superintendent Dr. Janet Robinson told told NBC Connecticut that there was no record of Nancy Lanza in their database. She may have been a substitute teacher, but it was unclear.
Investigators spent hours questioning Lanza's 24-year-old brother Ryan, who told them that Adam had a history of mental health issues and that they had not spoken in two years, NBC News reported.
It was the second-deadliest school shooting in American history, second only to the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting that killed 32.
President Obama, addressing the nation for the second time, said Saturday that in his weekly radio and Internet address that "every parent in America has a heart heavy with hurt."
On Friday, Obama teared up as he talked about the young victims.
"They had their entire lives ahead of them. Birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own," he said at a press conference. "So our hearts are broken for them today."
"We wanted to give our support to this town," Mantone said while she and her daughters stood in a circle, cradling lit candles outside the church. "I hope people would help our town if God forbid something happened to us."
As the investigation continues, officers have been assigned to the parents so the information is communicated directly to them, according to state police.
Major crime detectives are still working the scene and their investigation won't be completed for another day and a half to two days, Lt. Vance said Saturday.
“It’s going to be a long, painstaking process,” he said.
President Barack Obama had strong, stern words for the country Sunday evening at an interfaith vigil for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and their families.
Obama said that the nation isn't doing enough to protect children and that "we will have to change."
"Caring for our children; it's our first job. If we don't get that right, we don't get anything right," Obama said in front of about 1,000 people in the Newtown High School auditorium. "That is how, as a society, we will be judged. And by that measure, can we truly say as a nation that we're meeting our obligations? Can we honestly say that we're doing enough to keep our children, all of them, safe from harm? ... The answer is no, we're not doing enough. And we'll have to change."
Besides those mourners who packed the auditorium, an overflow crowd of about 1,500 gathered in the school gymnasium. Some waited for hours in a cold drizzle for a chance to grieve with their fellow community members.
Inside the auditorium were a large number of elementary school-age children with their parents. Some of the children were seen squeezing stuffed animals given out by the American Red Cross. Faculty, staff and some students from Sandy Hook Elementary wore green and white ribbons -- the school's colors -- with a small angel in the middle.
"Now more than ever we need each other, because we are all in this together," said Matthew Crebbin, senior minister of the Newtown Congregational Church. "We are in this together."
The president met privately before the vigil with families of the victims and with emergency personnel who responded to the shootings. The White House declined to release details of those meetings.
The grieving in Newtown turned from shock to contemplation Sunday, as it grappled with the news of who is gone and learned it could face weeks before its biggest question — Why? — is answered.
But even as the reality of the town's loss set in and police released a trickle of new information about Friday's school massacre, Newtown remained on edge Sunday — particularly after the evacuation of Mass at a church where eight victims were parishioners. After a threat at St. Rose of Lima Church, the facility was searched, and an all-clear was given.
Sunday also raised the possibility that 20-year-old killer Adam Lanza's horrific rampage through Sandy Hook Elementary School could have been much deadlier. When the 20-year-old shot himself in the head, after killing 20 children, six staff members and his own mother, he left behind hundreds of unused bullets, police said Sunday.
Earlier Sunday, a spokesman for the chief medical examiner announced the final two autopsy results in the Friday shooting, confirming that the killer's mother Nancy Lanza, 52, had been killed by multiple shots to her head and that the gunman had killed himself with a gunshot wound to his head.
Those were just a few more of the grim details released in a case investigators said was among the hardest they had ever handled.
Police warned earlier Sunday that it could be weeks before they have a sense of Adam Lanza's motive, as they continue their grueling investigation of his Friday rampage, and cautioned that a glut of misinformation was being spread on social media websites.
"We're using every single resource in order to paint a complete picture of what happened," Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance told reporters.
Friday's shooting left 20 children and 8 adults, including the gunman's mother and the gunman himself, dead and another two people wounded, Vance confirmed Sunday to NBC Connecticut after a press conference.
Police were interviewing those two survivors, Vance said, as well as many other witnesses to the massacre — many of them children.
"We have a great deal of evidence that we're analyzing," Vance said, declining to describe that evidence, and said police were tracing the histories of the gunman's four weapons "back to when they were on the workbench."
As police sift through evidence and witness accounts of Friday's horrific attack, Newtown was still reeling from Saturday's release of the list of the names of the victims — and wondering whether Sandy Hook Elementary School would ever reopen to children again.
Newtown Police Lt. George Simko said it was "too early" to know if the school might ever reopen, but he added, "I'd find it very difficult to do this."
Memorials to victims grew overnight after police released victims' names Saturday afternoon. On a cold and damp Sunday morning, paper bags lit with candles, one for every victim, flickered beneath the local Christmas tree at one end of downtown Sandy Hook.
At the other end of downtown, figures of angels had been posted on a hill on wooden stakes in memory of the 20 child victims of the shooting.
The official list of victims went up on the Connecticut State Police's website Saturday afternoon, and to see it in black and white, with so many names, and with dates of birth as late as 2006, was a stark reminder of what the town of 28,000 had lost.
The news was accompanied by a methodical account from the state's chief medical examiner of how 12 girls, eight boys and six women were gunned down with chilling efficiency — each hit at least twice — by a young man armed with a .223 Bushmaster rifle inside Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Lanza's father released a statement saying his remaining family was "grieving," "heartbroken" and "struggling to make sense of what has transpired."
"Our hearts go out to the families and friends who lost loved ones and to all those who were injured," Peter Lanza wrote. "We are in a state of disbelief and trying to find whatever answers we can. We too are asking why."
As the picture-postcard town in southwestern Connecticut struggled to find its footing, new details emerged about how the attack unfolded.
Lanza apparently shot his way into the school, shattering the front door glass around 9:30 a.m.
Morning announcements were under way, and witnesses remembered hearing screams and gunshots over the PA system.
Others recalled a custodian running down the hall, yelling that there was a gunman.
Teacher Kaitlin Roig described huddling in a bathroom with her 15 first-grade students, trying to assure them that everything would be alright—even though she didn't believe it.
"I'm thinking, 'We're next,'" Roig told ABC News' Diane Sawyer. "And I'm thinking, as a 6-year-old, 7-year-old, what are your thoughts? I'm thinking I almost have to be their parent. So I said to them, I need you to know that I love you all very much, and it's going to be okay, because I thought that was the last thing they were ever going to hear."
The school's principal, Dawn Hochsprung, and school psychologist Mary Sherlach were in a meeting with a parent, other staff members and school therapist Diane Day when the shooting started, Day told The Wall Street Journal. While most people dove under desks, Hochsprung and Sherlach rushed to see if they could help and ran toward the shooter, schools Superintendent Janet Robinson said.
Hochsprung, 47, a mother of five who viewed her school as a model of opportunity and safety, and Sherlach, 56, who was planning her retirement, were both killed.
Another teacher pressed her body against the door to keep Lanza out—and was shot twice in the process, Day said.
Kindergarten teacher Janet Vollmer recalled hearing the attack unfold over the intercom. She told CBS 2 she tried keep her 19 students calm by telling them a custodian was probably on the roof retrieving a soccer ball. Then she and her aides drew the shades and locked the classroom door.
A half hour passed, and finally police arrived to escort them out. On the way, she noticed blood on the floor. "I don't know whether any of them saw that — we kept going," Vollmer said.
Another teacher helped students get out through a window, Robinson said, and one hid the students in the kiln room as the shooter made his way through the school.
Police reportedly had the students hold hands and close their eyes as they were led from the building.
By 11:03 a.m., officers said the school had been evacuated and was secure. They went to the Lanza home and found the gunman's mother dead of a gunshot wound. Despite earlier reports, it did not appear she was a staff member at Sandy Hook Elementary.
Court records showed that Lanza's parents had divorced in 2008 after 17 years of marriage, according to The New York Times, which added that Peter Lanza had moved out of the family's home.
The state's chief medical examiner, H. Wayne Carver, said the case was probably the "worst that I have seen" in his more than 30 years on the job. He performed autopsies of seven of the victims, all of whom had between three and 11 bullet wounds.
Asked whether the victims suffered, Carver said, "not for very long." Asked where on their bodies they were shot, and he said, "all over." Asked how many rounds were fired, he replied, "lots."
The victims were identified by showing relatives pictures of their faces in order to spare them additional grief.
As the investigation continues, state troopers have been assigned to the parents so the information is communicated directly to them, police said.
They included first-grade teacher Victoria Soto, 27, whose family said they were told by investigators that she was killed while trying to protect her first-graders from the gunfire.
The release of the names was a dreaded but anxiously awaited moment as the town — and the nation — struggled to absorb the second-deadliest school shooting in American history, second only to the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting that killed 32.
With so many unanswerable questions, Newtowners sought solace amongst each other, flocking to vigils and religious services and building spontaneous memorials to the victims around town.
In downtown Sandy Hook Saturday night, where Church Hill Road and Washington Avenue intersect, candles for each victim flickered beneath the local Christmas tree, while passersby added flowers, votives and two smaller Christmas trees decorated with children's ornaments and topped by angels. They wrote notes to the victims and their families, promising to pray for them and their town. Some brought their young children and struggled to explain what it all meant.
Across the street, in front of an office building, someone had erected a sign made of Christmas lights that read "FAITH," "HOPE" and "LOVE."
Outside Sandy Hook Wine and Liquor, an American flag on poster board was propped on a bench. Owner Mike Kerler and his wife made cards with each of the victims' names and affixed them to the flag.
Kerler, whose four children attended Sandy Hook Elementary, was glad to see the names released, he said, because it will allow the community to step up in support of them, neighbor to neighbor. The victims included a girl who lived across the street from him, he said.
"I'm still searching for something we can do," Kerler said. "We just want to let them know we're thinking about them and we care."
A woman blesses herself at a makeshift memorial outside of St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church before Mass, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. On Friday, a gunman allegedly killed his mother at their home and then opened fire inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 26 people, including 20 children. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Police gave the "all clear" at St. Rose of Lima Church in Newtown after it was evacuated during a noon mass on Sunday due to a threat.
Someone made a very menacing phone call to the church, according to Brian Wallace, a spokesperson for the diocese.
Rev. Luke Suarez was giving the homily around 12:30 p.m. when the church pastor, Monsignor Robert Weiss, interrupted him and told parishioners they had to evacuate.
More than a dozen state troopers armed with assault rifles entered the church and then the church's education center on Church Hill Road, according to NBC Connecticut reporter, Audrey Washington.
Parishioners and news media were told to leave the church property.
It was another heart-stopping incident for the people of Newtown, already dealing with unspeakable grief after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday.
