Newtown: First funerals for the victims

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NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — A grief-stricken Newtown on Monday began burying the littlest victims of the school massacre, starting with two 6-year-old boys — one of them a big football fan, the other a mischievous, whip-smart youngster whose twin sister survived the rampage.

Family, friends and townspeople streamed to two funeral homes to say goodbye to Jack Pinto, who loved the New York Giants and idolized their star wide receiver, and Noah Pozner, who liked to figure out how things worked mechanically.

“If Noah had not been taken from us, he would have become a great man. He would been a wonderful husband and a loving father,” his uncle Alexis Haller told mourners, according to remarks he provided to The Associated Press. Both services were closed to the news media.

Noah’s twin, Arielle, who was assigned to a different classroom, survived the killing frenzy by 20-year-old Adam Lanza that left 20 children and six adults dead last week at Sandy Hook Elementary in an attack so horrifying that authorities cannot say whether the school will ever reopen.

As investigators worked to figure out what drove Lanza to lash out with such fury — and why he singled out the school — federal agents said that the young man had fired guns at shooting ranges over the past several years but that there was no evidence he did so recently as practice for the rampage.

At Jack’s Christian service, hymns rang out from inside the funeral home, where the boy lay in an open casket. Jack was one of the youngest members of the Newtown youth wrestling association, and dozens of boys in gray Newtown Wrestling T-shirts were at the funeral, as was his coach.

A mourner, Gwendolyn Glover, said the service carried a message of comfort and protection, particularly for other children.

“The message was: You’re secure now. The worst is over,” she said.

Tags: news, newtown, funerals, victims, shootings