Sandy Hook Shooting Photo Used In Firm's Ad

A company has apologised for using a photo of the damaged entrance of Sandy Hook school where 26 children and adults were shot dead to advertise its protective window coverings.

Commercial Window Shield of Taylors sent an email to school officials in Connecticut earlier this week saying its product could stop bullets and keep out intruders.

It included a police crime scene photo of Sandy Hook Elementary School's front entrance after it was shot out by the school shooter in Newtown in December 2012.

Government official Steve Vavrek, whose town is right next to Newtown, said the company's ad showed "what is wrong with this country".

"I just think it's the wrong thing to do to profit off a crime like this and show pictures of it," he told WVIT-TV.

Upset Newtown officials contacted the company to complain - prompting the South Carolina firm to issue an apology.

Sarah Staley and Adam Staley, of Commercial Window Shield, wrote in an email to a Newtown government official: "Although it was not our intention, we understand that the email was insensitive and disrespectful.

"Our intention was not to profit from a tragedy. We took the wrong approach with the email, and would like to offer our most sincere apologies. The fact that I have unintentionally disrespected those affected by this tragedy makes me sick."

Commercial Window Shield's website says it has installed "fragment retention window film" at the US Capitol, Library of Congress, Pentagon, FBI, Grand Central Station in New York, the Willis Tower in Chicago and more than two dozen US embassies around the world.

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