Gilles Rousseau, the father of Lauren Rousseau, who died in the classroom with her first grade students, said he was not surprised with anything in the report, though there were some details he didn’t know.
“I glanced at the report. We have been kept up to date for the last eleven months by the state police who didn’t want the members of the families to be shocked by what was in the report,” Rousseau said. “They did a very good job, giving us little bits at a time.”
A week ago, he saw the report for a short time and read the part that talked about his daughter, Lauren.
“But we had been told how she had died when we visited the school. We were told she was there standing in front of her little kids,” he said.
He’s glad this report is out but expects the media and some people won’t be happy until the 2,000 page report is released.
“The problem is that for a lot of people, it doesn’t give you answers. We all like to have answers to our questions,” he said. “It”s difficult. “Why did he do it? Could the police department acted differently? I don’t torture myself with it. I prefer living and remembering Lauren for who she was.”
Cristina Hassinger, the daughter of slain principal Dawn Hotchsprung, said there was very little in the report that families hadn’t already learned from meetings with investigators in recent months.
“I think people were looking for some big ground breaking development, and there isn’t one,” she said.
Hassinger said her biggest fear with the release of the report is that it will spark “a whole new wave of conspiracy theories.”
“Most people had hoped this report would stop them , but they are only going to find a way to twist this information into their own agenda,” she said.