WTC Steel To Be Used In Angel Statue For Girl Killed In Tucson Shooting Rampage
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A piece of World Trade Center steel is being molded into an angel in the memory of a girl who was born on Sept. 11, 2001 and died a barrage of gunfire in the Arizona shooting rampage that injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
The 5 1/2-foot-long fragment of an I-beam was picked up Wednesday from a hangar at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The steel from the twin towers was donated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the trade center site.
The angel statue honoring Christina-Taylor Green will stand 9 feet, 11 inches tall. The Freedom's Steadfast Angel of Love statue will also incorporate a 3 1/2-foot-long piece of steel from the Pentagon and a large rock from the Flight 93 crash site.
Sculptor Lei Hennessy-Owen told 1010 WINS that the angel statue will pass through Shanksville, Pa. to honor the victims of United Airlines Flight 93.
"We thought it would be really appropriate to leave from here," Hennessy-Owen said.
The statue will be installed at James D. Kriegh Park in Oro Valley, Ariz., where Green played Little League baseball, and dedicated at the opening day ceremonies of the Canyon del Oro Little League.
"I can't tell you how healing it was for me to talk to John Green, Christina-Taylor's father, just to hear in his voice the fact that we all were thinking of them," Hennesey-Owen said. "They love the idea; it gave them a positive image to think of."
Christina-Taylor's relatives said she was "so proud'' of being on the Pirates Little League team. They said it means a lot to them to know "there will be an angel in the outfield watching over'' the Little League.
"That this angel would be made from the remnants of the 9/11 attacks makes this tribute especially touching,'' the family said in a prepared statement. "Christina-Taylor wanted to be a symbol of hope for those touched by our nation's great tragedy on 9/11, the day she was born.''
Christina-Taylor was the youngest victim of the January shooting, which left six people dead and 13 wounded.
Her birth on the day of the worst terror attack in the nation's history and her death in another unspeakable act of violence made her an enduring face in the Tucson tragedy, generating a tremendous outpouring of sympathy in Arizona and around the country.
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