Here is the Hartford Courant article about the tragic, violent death of Newington police officer Ciara McDermott, who was murdered Monday by her ex-boyfriend, also a cop. The article notes the NHS connection:

McDermott was the school resource officer in Newington. She was just at Newington High School Monday to provide grief counseling to students mourning the death of Brendan Horan, 17, a high school senior who died Friday night in an all-terrain vehicle accident. Students gathered late Monday to hold a vigil to remember Horan, but it also turned into a memorial for McDermott. …

Students who gathered in a Newington High School parking lot late Monday were saddened and shocked, and visibly upset that instead of mourning just one, they were mourning two.

“I just talked to her today and she told me I could call her anytime,” said Gina Nardi, a junior at the school who had been one of many students to meet with McDermott following Horan’s accident.

“I feel like this is not real,” said Nicole Dehaas, a sophomore at the school who, like many others, struggled not to cry as they hugged other students who arrived at the parking lot. “We were supposed to be here to mourn Brendan, now we are mourning Officer McDermott too.”

“Two lives lost in three days, this is not good,” Nardi said.

When word of McDermott’s death circulated among the group, students spray painted a white bed sheet with a memorial message in her honor and hung it on a chain link fence next to another that hung in Horan’s memory.

“Mcdermott R.I.P.,” it read. “We [love] you. 11-21-05.”

Here’s another story on the NHS reaction, and here’s another, including a quote from the principal:

“We’re a mess,” says Principal Bill Collins. “Were not gonna deny that. We got a lot of work to do. Healing is a long process, but we’ll get through it.”

As I noted yesterday, this is not the first time NHS has been “a mess” because of dual tragedies in the month of November. On Nov. 18 and 19, 1997, junior Bob Aniello and freshman Jen Partridge died, stunning the school community and creating the sense that a black cloud had descended on the high school. Eight years later, these tragedies — on Nov. 18 and 21, 2005 — are inspiring similar emotions.

As if that weren’t enough, NHS Class of 1996 grad Jeffrey Grubin points out via e-mail that still another recent Newington tragedy occurred in mid-November, when well-loved ‘96 grad Christine Guyon, then a student at UConn, was hit and killed by a car on Nov. 15, 1999. Her funeral was on Nov. 19 — two years to the day after Jen Partidge’s death — and Jeffrey says he remembers seeing a three kids sitting at Jen’s gravesite as he was leaving Christine’s service.

November has not been kind to Newington High.

P.S. The official NHS homepage has several links related to Brendan Horan’s death, including a letter to parents (PDF). There’s nothing yet specifically about Officer McDermott, but the town website has this and this.

P.P.S. WFSB has this article, and also invites readers to send in their memories of Officer McDermott.