NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) -- The father of a 6-year-old girl killed in the
Connecticut elementary school massacre says his deep pain is comforted by the memory of how bright, loving and creative his daughter was.
Robbie Parker says his daughter Emilie was artistic and was always quick to draw a picture or make a card for friends. He says the world is a better place because Emilie was in it.
Parker was among the first parents to speak about the loss of one of the 20 children who died in Friday's shootings in Newtown. He struggled to collect his breath at first, much less to speak. He says he's not mad and expressed sympathy for the shooter's family.
Parker says, "She was beautiful. She was blond. She was always smiling."
Conn. gunman broke in, shot some victims twice
NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) -- The gunman behind the Connecticut elementary school massacre stormed into the building and shot 20 children at least twice with a high-powered rifle, executing some at close range and killing adults who tried to stop the carnage, authorities said Saturday.
He forced his way into the school by breaking a window, officials said. Asked whether the children suffered, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver paused. "If so," he said, "not for very long."
An official with knowledge of the situation tells The Associated Press three weapons were found inside the school and fourth weapon was found outside. The murder weapon was a high-powered rifle with a high capacity, popular with law enforcement and the military.
Police shed no light on what triggered 20-year-old Adam Lanza to carry out the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, though state police Lt. Paul Vance said investigators had found "very good evidence ... that our investigators will be able to use in painting the complete picture, the how and, more importantly, the why." He would not elaborate.
Friday's massacre has elicited horror and soul-searching around the world.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says the "innocent little boys and girls" were "taken from their families far too soon."
Investigators have questioned the gunman's older brother, who's not believed to have been involved in the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary in prosperous Newtown, 60 miles northeast of New York City.
Obama to travel Sunday to Newtown, Conn.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama will attend a memorial service Sunday in Newtown, Conn., the site of Friday's deadly elementary school shooting.
Twenty-six people, including 20 children, were killed when a man opened fire inside the school.
Hours after the shooting, a tearful Obama said he grieved first as a father. In those remarks and later in his Saturday radio address, Obama called for "meaningful action" to prevent such shootings, but did not say what it should be.
Obama's visit to Newtown for an interfaith vigil would be the fourth time he has traveled to a city after a mass shooting.
The president had planned to travel to Maine on Wednesday for an event promoting his positions in "fiscal cliff" negotiations, but the White House canceled that trip because of the shooting.
