'It could have happened at any school': 5 years later, Indy residents remember Sandy Hook

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Phoebe Carnes, 11, speaks at a vigil commemorating the fifth anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The vigil was also meant to honor the lives of Indianapolis residents touched by gun violence, organizers said. Holly Hays/IndyStar

Dozens of photos lined the limestone at the end of the Canal Walk Thursday night, the small faces illuminated by the soft glow of battery-powered candlelight. 

Huddling for warmth in the frigid December air, about two dozen people gathered for a vigil to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which left 20 students and six educators dead. Their photos looked out into the dark night.  

Beth Sprunger, the state chapter lead for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, the group that organized the vigil, said she was moved to join the group shortly after seeing an interview with its founder, Shannon Watts, and around the time her oldest child, now 8, was starting kindergarten. 

"It took my breath away walking into that school and thinking that I was sending her there on her own every day, and I just got so overwhelmed with the thought of what had happened at Sandy Hook and my baby being away from me all day," she said. "I knew that I needed to join this group and start working toward trying to make our children safer." 

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Sprunger said the group is working to ensure that the state's handgun permitting system stays intact and is fighting against concealed carry reciprocity, which she said would essentially allow anyone permitted to carry a concealed weapon in one state to carry it in another. 

"We go to the Statehouse here in Indiana and we work with state-level lawmakers on Indiana gun legislation, trying to pass common-sense laws that help keep us safer," Sprunger said. "We also work on the federal level with our House reps and our congressmen and work with them to pass federal legislation that will help keep America safer." 

There is still much work to be done, Sprunger said. 

"Obviously we haven't made the progress that we need as far as gun legislation," she said. 

In the five years since Sandy Hook, even deadlier shootings have shocked the nation. The two deadliest shootings in modern America history were recorded in consecutive years: 50 people killed in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida in June 2016 and at least 59 killed and more than 500 injured in a shooting on the Las Vegas strip in October.  

Now in sixth grade, 11-year-old Phoebe Carnes was in first grade the year of the Sandy Hook shooting — the same age as many of the victims. 

Bundled in a coat and holding a flashlight to see her speech, Carnes, the daughter of a teacher, addressed the crowd Thursday night. 

"As an 11-year-old there are still certain things I don't have enough life experience to understand," she said. "But I do understand what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School could have happened at my school, it could have happened at my mom's school and it could have happened at any school in America." 

The memorial was meant not only to commemorate the 26 lives lost at Sandy Hook but also to honor the lives touched by gun violence here in Indianapolis, Sprunger said. 

People like DeAndra Yates, whose then-13-year-old son was struck in the back of the head by a stray bullet while attending a birthday party in 2014. He survive, but now requires around-the-clock care, she said. 

"I can relate so much to parents who have lost their children because in a sense, I truly have lost who my son used to be," she said. 

For the third consecutive year, Indianapolis is on pace to set a new criminal homicide record. As of Thursday evening, the city had recorded 149 criminal homicides, tied with 2016's record-setting total. 

"We should not be losing our kids to gun violence," she said. "Parents should not be burying their 10-year-old, 15-year-old and 17-year-old kids to gun violence, their 30-year-old kids to gun violence." 

Yates issued a call to action. 

"We all need to make sure that we're out here being the change that we want to see in the world," she said. 

Call IndyStar reporter Holly Hays at (317) 444-6156. Follow her on Twitter: @hollyvhays.