Cities hit by mass shootings forever changed by massacres

ORLANDO, Fla. _ The grief is strikingly similar, no matter where the shooting happens.

It's "people on their knees praying."

It's "weeping, wailing ... moaning."

It's "Satan was here."

But what happens in the days, months, years _ even decades _ afterward? How does a city heal, and what does it learn?

A rallying cry, inevitably, after each shooting is: "It does not define us." But maybe it does.

After the Pulse nightclub attack in June, Orlando Sentinel staff went to cities of the nation's worst shootings to explore how the massacres changed them.

San Bernardino, Calif.; Charleston, S.C.; Aurora, Colo.; Newtown, Conn.; Blacksburg, Va.; and Denver's suburb of Columbine were alike in their early months of grieving.

In time, each went a distinct way, depending on the circumstances of the crime and the essence of the community.