President Obama comes to comfort Newtown

As a community and the world awaited a vigil at Newtown High School on Sunday, President Barack Obama headed toward the epicenter of Friday morning's mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 20 children and six women were killed. The president, wearing a dark suit, walked down the steps of Air Force One under a light drizzle and darkening skies at Bradley Air Force Base just outside Hartford at 3:53 p.m. He then stepped into a sport utility vehicle for the motorcade to Newtown. A White House official said the president is the primary author of his speech at the 7 p.m. vigil. He was working on edits with speech writer Cody Keenan on the brief flight from Andrews Air Force Base to Connecticut.

The president purposefully boarded Air Force One just after 3 p.m. at Andrews Air Force Base. The president was followed shortly afterward by Valerie Jarrett, David Plouffe and Keenan. Also on the plane were John Larson and Rosa DeLauro, two members of Connecticut's Congressional delegation.