DUSHANBE, December 16, 2012, Asia-Plus -- Residents of Newtown, Connecticut grudgingly began to accept on Saturday that a town many cherished for its serenity and anonymity is now synonymous with a school massacre that will remain in the national spotlight for the foreseeable future, Reuters reported on December 15.

Locals, many of whom settled in the upscale New England community about 80 miles from New York City to escape the hustle and noise, some feeling safe enough to leave their doors unlocked, feared that Friday''s shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School claimed the lives of not only 20 children and six adults, but Newtown''s way of life as well.

In all, the gunman killed 28 people, including his mother and himself.

According to AFP, the gunman was identified as 20-year-old Adam Lanza.  Police say he was the son of Nancy Lanza, a kindergarten teacher at Shady Hook. 

“This wonderful town that we all love for its peace, beauty, the great schools - all of that - has become Columbine,” said Julie Maxwell Shull, a Newtown middle school teacher, referring to the Colorado high school that in 1999 became the site of one of the nation''s most notorious mass school shootings.

“We came here because it was going to be a good, safe community for our kids,” said Catherine Hunyadi, as she and her husband wiped tears from their eyes.

The sense that a cherished lifestyle had been lost arose even as many of the town''s 27,000 residents came together to comfort and console the families and friends of the victims.

More than 100 grieving parishioners of Saint Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church filed past TV camera crews and satellite trucks in the church parking lot to pray and grieve together at an 8 a.m. mass on Saturday.  The previous night, more than 1,200 people attended a service to remember those who died in the shooting.

Sandy Hook Elementary School will not re-open with other Newtown schools next week, and students there will be routed to other schools in the district, public school superintendent Janet Robinson said on NBC''s ‘Today'' show on Saturday morning.

“People move to Newtown for the schools, and we feel safe.  Now our innocence and our safety have been shattered,” Robinson said on the program.

The U.S. President has announced a four-day mourning across the country over victims of the shooting at the elementary school in Newtown.