SAN ANTONIO – The terror of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, has stunned Ron Anthony Quinn. He lives nearby in Danbury, where his two daughters attend another elementary school not far from Sandy Hook Elementary.
He spoke to KSAT-12 Special Projects Producer Shari St. Clair Friday afternoon.
"There's not a kid older than 10-years-old or 11-years-old in this school, so it's really hard for me to wrap my head around the kind of evil it takes to do something like this," Quinn said.
He said people in Danbury felt as if the tragedy happened in their own town.
"Emotions are mixed, they're up and down. It's really just a state of disbelief," Quinn said. "You read about stuff like this, like Columbine, whatever, school shootings in Virginia, and, you know, it affects you. But you know when it's 5 miles down the road, it really affects you really hard, you know."
By Friday afternoon, Quinn's children were still behind locked doors at their school.
"I just want to see my kids," Quinn said. "They're in school now, and their school is locked down, so we can't get to them for a couple more hours."
As he sat in his office, Quinn said his co-workers are also struggling to make sense of the tragedy.
"Grief, pain, a lot of tears, a lot of disbelief," Quinn said. "And a lot of praying going on right now. A lot of praying."