He said, 'everything's going to be ok, Dad, it's all going to be ok.' And it wasn't ok."

[kpete]

WASHINGTON - Neil Heslin, whose son Jesse McCord Lewis was killed in the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., gave moving testimony on Wednesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the assault weapons ban proposed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

"As Jesse was getting out of the truck (the morning he died), he leaned in and hugged me," Heslin said, weeping openly as he held up a portrait of his son. "I can still feel that hug, and that pat on the back. He said, 'everything's going to be ok, Dad, it's all going to be ok.' And it wasn't ok."

The night of the shooting, Heslin said, "I waited in that firehouse until one in the morning, until I knew Jesse was confirmed dead ... I have to go home at night to an empty house, without my son."

Heslin's son Jesse was one of the 20 children and six educators who were shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in mid-December. A group of Newtown residents attended the hearing, and sat behind Heslin as he spoke. The hearing room was silent except for the sound of weeping.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/neil-heslin-assault-weapons-ban-newtown_n_2774598.html