I expected there to be tears by candlelight, prayers and embracing, a melancholy gathering of a wounded neighborhood attempting to heal together. I parked my car 15 minutes before the designated 5 p.m. start time and thought, while watching two news vans leapfrog one another to win the closest parking spots, that for residents of Lilac Street, the novelty of seeing news media so close to home had no doubt worn off by now.
The crowd was so thin at one point, just past 5 o'clock, I wondered if I had gotten the time or date wrong - but no, there were other reporters...
