Final funerals for Newtown shooting victims

A horsedrawn carriage carrying the body of Anna Grace Marquez-Greene leaves the church after her funeral in Bloomfield, Conn., Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012. Marquez-Greene, 6, was killed when gunman Adam Lanza opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School last week, killing 26 people, including 20 children, before killing himself. / AP Photo/Seth Wenig

Last Updated 8:30 p.m. ET

NEWTOWN, Conn. After a wrenching week of emotional farewells, Newtown held the last funerals for victims of last Friday's elementary school shooting.

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Funerals and tributes for Newtown victims

A horse-drawn carriage brought the miniature coffin of Ana Marquez-Greene to the church in Bloomfield, Conn., where a thousand mourners gathered to bid goodbye.

The service for the 6-year-old at The First Cathedral church included a performance by Harry Connick Jr., who has played with the girl's jazz saxophonist father, Jimmy Greene, the Connecticut Post reported.

Family members remembered her as wild-haired child with her own love of music.

"Ana had a song," said the Rev. Paul Echtenkamp of Glory Chapel International Cathedral in Hartford. "It just came out of her."

Monsignor Robert Weiss said at the funeral for 7-year-old Josephine Gay that she liked Barbie, her iPad and the color purple.

"Purple is the color of passion," Weiss said, according to the New Haven Register.

Josephine's parents, Michele and Bob, remembered how much she liked peanut butter, and how she would request a new spoon for each mouthful. They would find spoons covered with peanut butter in locations throughout the house.

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Newtown police chief shares his story

Dozens of emergency responders paid their respects at the start of the service at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Newtown, walking through the church and up to the altar.

Emilie Parker, 6, was laid to rest in the northern Utah city of Ogden, where people had tied pink ribbons around trees and utility poles in her memory.

Her father, Robbie Parker, was one of the first parents to publicly talk about his loss and he expressed no animosity for the gunman. He's sustained by the fact that the world is better for having had Emilie in it.

"I'm so blessed to be her dad," he said.

Twenty children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14. The lone gunman also killed his mother before going on the rampage and then committing suicide.

Five funerals were held on Friday for Rachel D'Avino, a behavioral therapist who had just recently begun work at Sandy Hook Elementary; Mary Sherlach, the school psychologist who was killed while rushing the gunman; six-year-old Olivia Engel; six-year-old Dylan Hockley; and seven-year-old Grace McDonnell.

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Authorities said Adam Lanza, 20, used a military-style assault rifle and carried handguns during the rampage at the school.

They still have no clear reason why Lanza would lash out at defenseless first-graders and their caretakers.

State police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance said a final report on the investigation could be months away.

On "CBS Evening News," correspondent Elaine Quijano interviewed Newtown Police Chief Michael Kehoe and Capt. Joe Rios about what they saw following the school shooting rampage. They arrived at the school minutes after the call.

"I was devastated, absolutely devastated," said Kehoe about what he saw in the classroom. "I had no words. I felt a little bit of anger towards the person who had done this."

"I walked in, and it was horrific," Rios recalled. "The crime scene itself. And to see the adults and the children that were deceased in the classrooms. It was very hard obviously to comprehend what had happened."

Kehoe said he feels some sense of guilt. "Deep down inside, I just believe that our job was to keep kids safe, and it's supposed to be in a learning environment."

[183460]

I had a dream that someone with lots of money donated enough to Newtown, specifically the school district, to construct a new school on the wooded land by the old school. The new school has concrete and steel reinforced rooms in each classroom to serve as "safe rooms" as well as closets. The old school was torn down and a beautiful monument and park area was constucted as a memorial to all those who were lost in this tragedy. So who will be my hero? Bill Gates? T. Boone Pickens, Warren Buffet? Someone is desperately needed to fund my dream and make it a reality for this community. Start now, and it could be ready for the 2013 school year. Any takers?

[joesapper]

The first pic of the Child and two Officers is one of the most profound pics of 2012 in my view , as the Child looks into the evil result in the back of the hearse saying good bye to here loss of friendship and more .

It would be an interview to watch if one or two of these Officers were to give an overview of their experiences of the week . As tempting as it would be to ask the Officers about their thoughts on gun control and mental health , I would stay clear of these political issues and simply ask the Officers about the past week and that particular moment in the pic .

The Pros behind the cameras are strong but not void of the same emotions that we have , so to those that bring the story to us without saying a word , thank you for service to humanity .

[ugacrew]

Really want to make a difference?

Stop patronizing violence.

Yes, that means movies, games,kickboxing, and all else.

Don't glorify it and then cry when we fall victim to the very thing we are glorifying.

[Type_Z]

Not a problem, I don't like violent movies or television.

Hollywood is the height of hypocracy.

[joesapper]

I am sorry to see the pic was changed from the other page as the child looking into the back of the result of evil in the hearse could have been the bases of books upon books written about this ugly event .

The Childs loss is more than words a can grasp .

[Ad_Lucem]

YES ! The NRA is HORRIFIED by these school shootings. They are terrified that this will create a negative impact on their own image. They don't care about the murdered children ... their only concern is that their "name" has been dragged through the mud and filth throughout all of this.

Hence, the NRA response (of course) is for "more guns...and more armed guards at schools. Yes ! more guns and more bloodshed !". It is hard to believe that the NRA, which symbolizes such filth and evil, still exists in the 21st Century.

[pcdc23]

CBSNews.com, do you actually employ proofreaders? If not, you should. Also, spell check is quite simple to use before posting an article. Try it sometime. It is embarrassing that a national news network allows so many articles to be posted with numerous spelling and grammatical errors.

[SUZAMBA]

Give it a rest and just read the article and quit complaining!

[123-cbsnews]

I agree, give it a rest, when we where kids where read the local paper to check for spelling errors, and problems with words in context. Professional writers for papers don't have anytime to step back, re-read there documents over the course of days, and weeks, they have real time dead lines. I like CBS this morning, and the CBS Breaking News Headlines, they do a good job and the stories and news are well done, interesting.

[AMCcarhobbyman]

On this day, My thoughts will be with the parents, relatives and friends of the children. I'll not comment on the schools, or guns or any other relavent news topic of not only the USA but the world too.

I think EVERYONE who any type of spirit or soul would automatically HEARTFELT for the sadness in Newtown. I do, I think i lost a little bit of my soul BUT i have drawn much closer to my religion because of it.

I was a Navy Veteran, holder of the Navy Expert Pistol ribbon, served 1974 to 1977, raised on a farm with available guns. A parent now of 3 wonderful grown children and 2 that are TEACHERS !

NOthing more important than raising healthy smart kids.

If you don't feel like this I encourage you at least watch the youtube video from the movie 'Expendables" with mickey rourke. Then come back and tell me what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OXwVxIN_kA

[Type_Z]

Our hearts our broken.

[MinNewtown]

Don't know where in CT you went to school. Grew up in Fairfield and never had to "watch" my back. Newtown Schools are among the best and until recently the safest in the country. I beg to differ about our staff failing to protect our students, if you recall many of them died protecting students here. I still think our staff is among the best and did and will continue to do the best to protect our children in this dangerous world. We only have one school district in Newtown and not as many as you pointed out in your piece and everyone that goes from the elementary school to the Intermediate school is from Newtown not outside. Suggest you get acquainted with Connecticut again, you may find things have changed a lotsince you went to school here.

[AMCcarhobbyman]

I am totally sad about what has happened. It brought me back to giving more time to my religion and what it means to your 'soul'.

My vocation in Quality' and statistics would guess that there are how many 'elementary', middle and high schools and how many students, including private. So...every place is different, in my home town because of just the drug situation we had a policeman assigned to the high school.

I think the number of mentally challenged people who go off the deep in is minimal. However, you'll never know when it will happen where? A lousy analogy may be like driving a car, when 50,000 people die a year and yet we let teenagers get in a car, encourage seat belts yet a drunk drivers will take many lives. A lousy analogy, but trying to mention statistics, the amount of cars and people. Same with amount of kids, schools but I HOPE this will drive: 1. School Boards to work closely with law enforcement for action, 2. consider private security. I know near the Cleveland schools due to drugs, gangs and just bad people that several police cars are parked outside.

The world has instant communication and social media and people get way too many goofy ideas.

My heart goes out to the parents, relatives and friends of all that perished in this terrible situation involving a mentally impaired person

[123-cbsnews]

Fairfield, CT was notorious for upper class white people, Shelton, CT was several districts colliding into one intermediate and high school. I stated where I went to school, obviously, you did not really learn too much during your public education. I've worked in every major city in the states and internationally, you always have to watch your back, "dangerous people only respect greater danger". I'd put my books and laptop in a knapsack to keep my hands free, places like Mexico City, everyone has been robbed, raped, mugged, there are 80,000 kidnappings a year between Mexico and Columbia. Public education is one of the most dangerous places on the planet also.

[karleigh77]

has anybody checked the shooters blood for drugs ,particuarly the drug devils breath aka scropoloamine,or boranchero,it goes by all those names. someone needs to get a handle on this shooting bs. get to the bottom of what is really going on here!!!!

[AMCcarhobbyman]

(personally, everything i read or heard on the radio was that the kid found out the mother was going to get him 'help' and of course with all the descriptive behavior from 'school' mates, and neighbors, he was not of 'sound' mind, and obviously overreacted, maybe drugs were involved or NOT taken. We have way too many 'protective' laws on the books about NOT telling the world about medical stuff. Pyschologists could NOT officially speak out because of the kid 'kicked' out of school at the graduate level at the COlorago Movie shootings. Info will come out. But basically the mother didn't help things by taking this kid to shooting ranges and exposing him to guns. He was NOT disciplined mentally and mature to handle it.

Wake up those who live by the sword