New York Daily News - Monday, December 24, 2012
Fellow Conn. officers volunteer to cover town so Newtown police force can get Christmas Day offNewtown police officers are getting a much needed day off on Christmas thanks to the kindness of their brethren from across the state. Connecticut officers from nearby towns not only have volunteered to cover all of the Newtown shifts but will donate their overtime pay to charities related to the shooting that left 27 people dead.By David Knowles / NEW YORK DAILY NEWSOfficers from across Connecticut have "been actually non-stop with their aid. It's pretty amazing," says Newtown police spokesperson Sergeant Steve Santucci. "And tomorrow, they'll be at our assistance so that Newtown [officers] can be home with their families."
They’ll be home for Christmas.
After an emotionally draining 10 days since gunman Adam Lanza’s shooting rampage in Newtown, Conn. left 20 elementary school children and 7 adults dead, police in the grieving town learned they would be given Christmas day off.
Officers from across the state have banded together and volunteered to cover the shifts of every single member of the Newtown police.
"They've been actually non-stop with their aid. It's pretty amazing," Newtown police spokesperson Sergeant Steve Santucci told the Atlantic Wire. "And tomorrow, they'll be at our assistance so that Newtown [officers] can be home with their families."
If that gesture of kindness wasn’t enough, many of the officers who have stepped up to work on Christmas will also be donating their overtime pay to Newtown and Sandy Hook Elementary School charities.
Sat. Police Chief Michael Keehoe, who had visited Sandy Hook Elementary weeks before the shooting and had read to some of the children who were killed, is still struggling to come to terms with what happened there.
“I was devastated, absolutely devastated,” Keehoe told CBS News about the emotions of arriving at the school on the morning of the shooting.
“You feel a sense of guilt that you weren’t there quick enough,” Keehoe added.
Capt. Joe Rios, another Newtown officer who was among the first to arrive at the school, is also grappling with the images now burned into his memory.
“I walked in and it was horrific, the crime scene itself, and to see the adults and the children that were deceased, the classrooms, it was very hard, obviously, to comprehend what had happened,” Rios told CBS.