First of 8 funerals at Newtown church begin

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) -- Family members gathered for the first of eight funerals for school shooting victims to be held at a Catholic church in Newtown, Conn.

Back-to-back funerals were held at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Newtown for first-graders James Mattioli and Jessica Rekos. They were the first of eight to be held in the coming days at the church.

A motorcade of dozens of vehicles led by police motorcycles accompanied the family of 6-year-old James Mattioli to St. Rose of Lima on Tuesday.

 The first service had not yet concluded when mourners began arriving for the funeral of Jessica. She loved horses and was counting the years until she turned 10, when her family had promised her a horse of her own.

Their funerals came a day after two other 6-year-old boys were laid to rest, in the first of a long, almost unbearable procession of funerals.

Margarita Rosniak and her 10-year-old daughter, Charlotte, watched from the sidewalk as people entered the church. They had traveled from California for a Christmas vacation in New York and came to Newtown to join the residents in their grief.

Clutching her daughter close, Margarita Rosniak spoke of sympathizing with the parents. Her daughter says she plans to do a school project on the massacre. She asks, "What was the point of it? They're just little kids."

Gunman Adam Lanza shot his mother Friday, then headed to Sandy Hook Elementary where he killed 20 children and six adults, and himself.