Bells ring out in honor of school shooting victims

ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION STORY: Many Americans remembered the victims of the Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre with a moment of silence on Friday (December 21). At the Trinity Episcopal Church in Newtown, people gathered in a driving rain on Friday morning. In the leafy suburban town's downtown, a makeshift memorial rose several feet around two Christmas trees with teddy bears, flower bouquets and printed cards with messages like "We Choose Love" and "Our Newtown Angels rest in Peace." They were memorials to the 20 children, all aged 6 and 7, who died in one of the deadliest mass shooting incidents in U.S. history. As the church bells began to ring at 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT), a small crowd lowered their heads and wept quietly under a steady rain. Churches up and down the East Coast, as far south as Florida and at the National Cathedral in Washington, rang their bells. Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy had called for residents of his state to observe the moment of silence to mark a week since a 20-year-old gunman killed his mother and then stormed Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. He killed a total of 28 people that day, including six school teachers and staff, his mother and himself. Governors in Maine, Illinois, Michigan and several other states also called for moments of silence.