This Day In History, 2012: The Sandy Hook Memorial Service

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Two days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings–December 16, 2012–President Obama was invited to a memorial service in Newtown. It was a Sunday, also the night of Sasha’s dance recital which he would have to miss. So he decided to attend her dress rehearsal in suburban Washington, D.C. before flying up to Connecticut. He sat in the mostly empty auditorium working on his remarks while waiting for Sasha’s performance. At one point, I went down towards the front of the stage and stood in the middle of the third row to photograph Sasha, so the Obama’s would have some close-up pictures of her dancing. A young dance troupe–about 20 or 25 of them–had just finished their performance and came filing out from backstage and sat in the row in front of me. I tapped one young girl on her shoulder and asked how old they were. She looked back at me, nervously, and said “we’re six.” The same age as the first-graders shot and killed in Newtown. I turned away so the kids didn’t see me cry.

A post shared by Pete Souza (@petesouza) on Dec 16, 2018 at 7:44am PST