RICHMOND, Va. » Saying his state still has painful memories from the mass April 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech, the governor extended his sympathies to Connecticut following an elementary school massacre.

Gov. Bob McDonnell said his thoughts and prayers are with the families affected by today’s shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

An official tells The Associated Press that 27 people are dead, including 18 children. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still under way.

Tim Kaine was governor at the time. But O’Donnell says the memories of the Tech shootings have never faded in Virginia and the state continues to grieve for those slain by a lone gunman on the Blacksburg campus. The gunman also killed himself, leaving 33 dead in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.