HARTFORD, Conn. — Dec. 14, 2012 started out like a normal Friday.
Legislators and their aides were preparing to gather at the state Capitol for the annual Christmas luncheon that was scheduled to include the governor, lieutenant governor and top lawmakers.
I was working that day and heard about a shooting at an elementary school in Newtown that was reported with the first 911 call at about 9:35 a.m. The initial sketchy media reports were that a female teacher had been shot in the foot.
But then I received a phone call from my editor that the Courant had received an early tip that the shooting was worse than the Cheshire tragedy that claimed three lives in the Petit family in July 2007.
It seemed incomprehensible at the time that anything could be worse than Cheshire.
By around noon, the guests had started to arrive for the Christmas party. My editor said not to publish anything because we were still verifying the tip — and so few officials knew the actual severity of the shooting.
Two of the leaders to arrive early at the party were House Republican leader Larry Cafero of Norwalk and Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams, the highest-ranking senator. When they were talking about the shooting, the full details had not yet been made public — and I felt compelled to tell them the truth. When told that more than 20 people had died, Cafero reflexively covered his mouth in shock. Williams immediately slumped back onto a desk to absorb the news.
“I’ll never forget it,’' Cafero recalled recently. “There was a TV and the special bulletins were coming across. I remember myself and Don Williams, standing next to each other, watching the television in shock and horror. I wasn’t fully cognizant of the gravity. The whole story had yet to come out.’'
Williams, who now serves as executive director of the state’s largest teachers’ union, recalled standing with Cafero at the party and having casual conversations.
“I remember just feeling like the air went out of the room,’' Williams recalled. “It was a gut punch. There wasn’t a whole lot to say at that point. People were in various stages of devastation. I remember we just left to regroup and get more information.’'
For Williams, the tragedy was deeply personal because his wife, Laura, was a longtime educator in Putnam, and the initial information was sparse.
“The very first news we had was that a female principal at an elementary school had been shot and killed. Period. No town‚’’ Williams said. “My wife was the principal at the Putnam Elementary School at that time. We didn’t have any information as to where in the state it was. I had to excuse myself [from a meeting with legislators]. I was panicked. I got up and left the room, and I called her. She answered the phone. At that moment, all I knew was that one person had been shot and killed in a school somewhere in Connecticut, and it was a female principal of an elementary school.’'
The Christmas party broke up relatively quickly as expected attendees like Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal canceled their plans for the rest of the day and headed to Newtown, nearly 50 miles away.
At 3 p.m., as President Barack Obama was making an emotional statement to the nation about the mass killings, Malloy and others were preparing for a press conference of their own in Newtown, the first of two they had there that day. Blumenthal, U.S. Sen-elect Chris Murphy and Senate Republican leader John McKinney were also there.
Back at the Capitol, the most important issue of the day had expected to be high-level talks about closing a short-term budget deficit.
During the negotiations in the House Speaker’s office, Republicans and Democrats simply could not agree as the television was playing in the background with the latest stunning developments in Newtown.
“We had reached an impasse, and we were literally going to walk out of the room. We couldn’t get any further,’' Cafero recalled. “Then the governor came on the television. You saw the pain in this man’s face. Put politics aside. We were adversaries, but I just saw the pain in this man’s face. There was just silence in the room. The press conference ended, and we had a deal in 15 minutes.’'
The negotiators realized that they had been involved in relatively petty squabbling about budget cuts when suddenly much more important issues were facing the state and the Newtown families.
“We’re haggling over what?’' Cafero recalled. “And these 26 people were slaughtered? Are you kidding me? Let’s just do our job and get out of here and mourn like everyone else. We didn’t say those words, but that’s what was going through everyone’s head. I will never forget it as long as I live.’’
The bipartisan budget deal reached that day was later approved in a special session, and the state’s long-running financial problems had been resolved for the moment.
During a second press briefing at 6 p.m. that day, Malloy addressed the state in a talk that lasted roughly three minutes.
“Evil visited this community today,” he said. “It’s too early to speak of recovery, but each parent, each sibling, each member of the family has to understand that [in] Connecticut, we’re all in this together, we’ll do whatever we can to overcome this event. We will get through it, but this is a terrible time for this community and for these families.”
He added, “Our prayers at this time have to go out to the families. ... The number 1 way to be helpful is to say a prayer or send a best wish or to be thinking of these individuals who have suffered so mightily today.”
By nightfall on Dec. 14, both Malloy and Blumenthal spoke at a vigil at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church on Church Hill Road in Newtown in remarks that were broadcast on CNN.
Blumenthal told the mourners, “The hearts and prayers of America are with you tonight.’’
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