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Hesston Looks Ahead To Recovery

Abigail Wilson

The city of Hesston, Kansas, is preparing to start to get back to normal after Thursday's mass shooting. A gunman killed three of his coworkers and wounded 14 others before being killed by police.

Hesston city officials say that the FBI, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, and many of the responders from nearby communities are leaving, and that the city manager, the mayor, and local police will be out front on what happens next.

What's next, they say, is recovery. The tiny city is an open community where kids ride their bikes freely and many people are of the Mennonite faith.

Resident Jim Brenneman points to the Christian backbone in Hesston, which he says will boost them back up again.

"We've just got to reach out and be a loving community," Brenneman says. "That's how we're gonna rebuild. We can't rebuild out of fear."

The city has posters, t-shirts and a website with their new motto, "We are Hesston strong."

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Aileen LeBlanc is news director at KMUW. Follow her on Twitter @Aileen_LeBlanc.

To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.