Newtown mom speaks out on gun violence

NEWTOWN, Conn. – The mother of a first-grader killed in the Newtown school shooting rampage spoke out against gun violence Sunday on the second anniversary of the massacre, saying it has broken the hearts of other mothers across the country.

“And just like our hearts were broken and we can’t breathe, the hearts of the mothers in Ferguson, in Bridgeport, in Hartford, in Florida, in New Haven, in Danbury, they can’t breathe,” said Nelba Marquez-Greene, who lost her daughter, Ana Grace, on Dec. 14, 2012.

“And we should care. We should care when our children are lost to gun violence.”

Marquez-Greene, speaking at The First Cathedral’s church service in Bloomfield, recalled the moment two years ago when she and her husband were in the Newtown firehouse, where officials were informing parents of the 20 children slain along with six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School. She and her husband found their son, now a fifth-grader, but not their daughter.

“But in that same firehouse,” she said, “my husband and I knew Ana was with Jesus and that we would see her again.”