Late last year, Gallery Books published a new book on the Sandy Hook massacre, “Newtown: An American Tragedy,” that brings into full relief the human element of the tragedy.  Authored by Matthew Lysiak, a staff writer for the Daily News who traveled to Newtown to cover the shooting, the book goes beyond the sensational news bytes we have become so accustomed to and reminds us of the heroism of the first responders who tried to so valiantly to make a difference that day, and the value of the lives that were lost.

Lysiak’s book paints a vivid portrait of the remarkable heroism shown by those involved in the tragedy on December 14, 2012, and the sheer horror that occurred in the school:

• “Then the shooting stopped [in one of the classrooms Adam Lanza entered].  Adam’s [AR-15] rifle had jammed.  First-grader Jesse Lewis, who was standing behind the children holding hands, stared directly at the shooter and shouted, ‘Run!’  Four did run, squeezing past the killer standing in the doorway.  Two other students ran into the bathroom.”  They survived.
• “[After the shooting] came the grueling task of searching for signs of life among the children.  Officer [William] Chapman found a faint pulse on a little girl, Olivia Engel, who was still faintly breathing.  The tall, muscular Chapman cradled the child in his arms and ran with her outside.  ‘We need a bus!’ he screamed.  ‘You’re safe now; your parents love you,’ he kept repeating to Olivia again and again, trying to comfort her.  ‘The police are here to protect you.’  As he walked farther he again shouted for an ambulance.  ‘Get the bus!” Chapman screamed, still trying to comfort the young girl, who lay limp in his arms.  Officer Chapman walked a few feet toward the bus before his strength gave out.  He collapsed to the ground … The ambulance pulled up to the entrance … Several first responders sprang to [Chapman’s] aid, picked him up off the ground by his shoulders, and carried the little girl’s lifeless body into the ambulance before racing away with lights blaring … Detective [Joe] Joudy looked at Officer Chapman, covered in blood, walking back inside the school.  ‘They’ve got to get you guys out of here,’ he told Chapman.”
• “They were all found wrapped together, clutching each other for comfort during their final moments.  Each had suffered multiple gunshot wounds.  The scene was too horrific to be from this earth, [Officer Leonard Penna] thought.  Officer Penna walked over and began checking for life amid the bodies and found a single girl standing alone, covered from head to toe in blood.  She appeared to be in shock but had not been injured.”
• “Some officers formed a human shield around the bodies of [Principal Dawn] Hochsprung and [school psychologist Mary] Sherlach, to shield the children from the sight as they walked past.”
• “As new officers continued to arrive, they were warned by the officers standing guard outside the school about the scene inside.  ‘If you have children, you especially do not want to go in there,’ they advised.”
• “[Susan] Ludwig couldn’t believe the sight as she looked at the little girl, who was covered from head to toe in blood, with pieces of flesh hanging off her body, and watched as she ran to the arms of her mother, in the parking lot.”
• “’Was everyone crying, scared, and wanting their parents to come get them?’ the [news] anchor asked the young student [outside the school] … ‘Yeah, they were, and then some people were even, like, it sounded like they had a stomachache.’”

The horrors found inside the Lanza home were no less traumatizing:

• “The four gunshot wounds to [Nancy Lanza’s] head had nearly decapitated her.  The wounds suggested the weapon had been pressed directly against her head when fired.  At the foot of the bed lay a Savage Mark .22-caliber rifle with three live rounds inside and one spent cartridge.”

Lysiak details the impact this had on survivors and first-responders alike:

• From the mother of a six-year-old girl who survived the shooting:  “She’s afraid to go to sleep.  She has nightmares every night, usually that she is in the school and something is trying to get her, to kill her.”
• “Locally, [the students who survived the shooting] are known as ‘the rebels’ … All have received counseling and several have shown symptoms of severe PTSD.”
• “Several EMTs couldn’t go back to work … Many were treated for PTSD.”

The most devastating section of Lysiak’s book, however, involves his recount of the funerals of those who were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary.  There we learn precious, personal details about the children and educators taken from us in the tragedy:

• NOAH POZNER, 6 years old.  His mother Veronique Pozner told him at his funeral, “You wanted to be a doctor, a soldier, and a taco factory manager … We are all of us elevated in our humanity by having known you … I can only believe that you were planted on earth to bloom in heaven.”
• JESSICA REKOS, 6 years old.  Her mother, Krista, said at her funeral:  “She wanted cowgirl boots—real cowgirl boots, not ones from Target.  And she wanted a cowgirl hat, and it had to be black.  Santa was going to bring those things next week.”
• VICKI SOTO. “Midway through the funeral, singer Paul Simon, who knew the Soto family through his sister-in-law, picked up his acoustic guitar and began to sing the twenty-seven-year-old teacher’s favorite song without introduction, as her three siblings, Jillian, Carlee, and brother Carlos, wept.  When Simon finished, there was no applause, just a reverent silence.”  Her sister Jillian recalled that she had received a letter from someone who told her that “they had to sit down three small children, explaining to them that monsters sadly do exist out there.  But they felt relief that because of my sister, they were able to tell them that superheroes are also very real.” Vicki Soto was a teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary.
• DANIEL BARDEN, 7 years old.  “Hundreds of fire officials lined the street in a silent show of support, saluting Daniel’s coffin … Daniel would never get the chance to live out his dream of being a New York City firefighter.”
• GRACE MCDONNELL, 6 years old.  “Her heartbroken mother stood in front of the packed pews and shared her treasured memories of her slain daughter, confiding that she had a secret bedtime ritual with her precious ‘fashionista,’ featuring a several-minute-long handshake and ending with them both saying the words ‘hot fire.’ … ‘You made me fearless,’ said Lynn McDonnell.”
• RACHEL D’AVINO.  Rachel’s boyfriend was going to propose to her on Christmas Eve.  Rachel was a behavioral therapist at Sandy Hook Elementary.

In a country that loses more than 31,000 of its citizens to gun violence each year, it can be easy to get lost in statistics.  “Newtown:  An American Tragedy” reminds us that behind every headline is a group of human beings—of families—whose lives are utterly and totally destroyed by gun violence.  It’s an important reminder for everyone dedicated to building an America that fulfills our Founders’ original promise of “domestic tranquility.”